Flying On Avelo Airlines, The Little Carrier That Could

Avelo Airlines took off on its first flight on April 28, 2021. The TSA person checking IDs for the new airline wore a mask and was stationed in a glass booth with a slot for one’s driver’s license. Yet Avelo Flight 101 had balloons and smiling flight attendants by the gate in Burbank.

The airline had trained its flight attendants and other personnel in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Note the masks in the photo below.) The airlines had yet to fully bounce back from the previous May, when the all-time monthly low of 180,151 flights was set. By April 2021, flights were up to 471,375, but were just 72% of the number operated in April 2019 (652,533). Only about half of Americans had been vaccinated at that time.

Perhaps not the best time to start an airline? But Avelo launched in April 2021 as, America’s first new mainline airline in nearly 15 years. And they did it with a bang, offering 11 non-stop routes starting at $19. Three and a half years later, the idea is still the same; flights from Ontario, CA (ONT) to Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport (STS) start at $35 one-way, Burbank, CA (BUR) to Bend/Redmond Municipal Airport, Oregon (RDM), $55, etc.

I was on Avelo’s festive first flight in 2021, from Burbank Airport to Sonoma. But when I flew the same route in October 2024 for a trip to Healdsburg and wine country, I hadn’t been on board an Avelo flight in three and a half years.

The airline survived and seems to have thrived. It flies to more than 50 destinations in 23 states, and two foreign countries, Cancun, Mexico (CUN) and Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ).

As of August 13, 2024, Avelo Airlines has carried over 5.2 million passengers on more than 40,000 flights. Its busiest hubs include Tweed-New Haven, (HVN), where Avelo has flown over 2.4 million passengers on more than 18,000 flights. The West Coast hub is Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) where Avelo has flown over 1.1 million passengers on more than 10,000 flights since April 2021.

The airline has gone from 3 planes to 15. Yet people still don’t know Avelo. When I mentioned I was flying Avelo to Sonoma (STS), an SF Bay area friend said, “I don’t like to fly on small planes.” I pointed out that Avelo’s aircraft were all reconditioned 737-700 (147 passengers) and 737-800 (189 passengers) aircraft. I still drew a blank look.

As a low-fare airline, Avelo’s primary draw is—low fares. The round trip I purchased from Burbank to STS and back, about a week in advance, was $219 before fees. A similar flight on Alaska Airlines (on a smaller regional jet) was around $500 at the same time.

Since its first flight, Avelo says it has been ranked number one in on-time performance, with the lowest flight cancellation rate in the industry. In our case, both the flight from Burbank and the return from Sonoma operated on time.

The interior of the plane is relatively new and clean. Although we had some snacks on the inaugural flights, Avelo didn’t supply snacks or drinks on our short hour and 15-minute flight to Sonoma.

As a low-fare airline, there is a charge for each piece of luggage checked. Other extra-cost items include advanced seat assignments for sale, allowing you to grab on of the extra leg room seats with more than 36 inches of legroom. Only one-third of the seats have extra leg room.

My knees pressed up against the seat in front of me (I’m 6’1”) so I believe had a seat with 32 inches of legroom. Other extra-cost items are priority boarding, checked bags, carry-on overhead bags, and bringing a pet into the cabin.

It is important to understand the difference between a carry-on and a personal item. You will pay for the carry-on you stuff into the overhead bin, but the personal item (in my case, a backpack) is included if it fits under the seat.

There were some empty seats on our flight, but the flight attendant made sure people were sitting in their assigned (i.e., paid for) seats. My seat in the fourth row was more expensive than my wife’s twenty rows back.

Any issues we had were mostly on the ground, rather than on the plane. Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport, or STS, is a cute little airport about 65 miles north of San Francisco. Named after cartoonist Charles Schultz, it is decorated with images and statues of his PEANUTS characters.

However, things move slower there than we big city folks are used to.

We had an early flight out of STS at 9:25AM. We drove our rental car there in the rain, arriving around 8:15AM. We then spent the next 15 minutes driving around the rental car drop-off parking lot, where there were no attendants. We finally found a spot, ran in, and noticed the Enterprise booth was empty. A nearby rental car worker asked if we blocked anyone. We said no, he took out keys and told us he’d give them to Enterprise when they showed up.

Then on to baggage check-in, where we had an agitating wait trying to check our one suitcase in. The TSA line was also a one-horse affair, with TSA Pre-Check mixed with common customers like us.

But all’s well that ends well. Once we climbed up the ramp to the plane, everything was good. The little airline that could, brought us to our leisure destination and back home for a fair price.