Avelo is bringing back some previously suspended destinations for the summer season.
This summer Avelo has seven destinations available to book – Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Tampa and Orlando, Florida; Myrtle Beach; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Wilmington, North Carolina.
Avelo Communications Manager Courtney Goff says in November they will add back Sarasota and West Palm Beach, Florida too. But the Savannah, Nashville, and Daytona Beach destinations will not return this year.
“They’re not canceled indefinitely,” Goff says. “But we are waiting to get a little bit stronger of a sense, utilizing the routes that are really working for Wilmington and for Avelo, and capitalizing on those so that we can continue to gain that awareness and reach not only in Delaware but in the surrounding cities and states.”
Goff says most people in the area are conditioned to look at flights from Philadelphia or Baltimore, so Avelo is still working on building awareness.
“When we initially started in Delaware we came out with our Florida cities, and then we kind of came out a little bit too hard, we addd a lot of seats and a lot of capacity when we should have scaled back and really made sure that the routes that we were currently working were continuous getting booking and the demand was there,” Goff says.
Goff notes booking trends for spring and summer are strong, and they are also noticing people based out of other destinations are utilizing Avelo too – choosing to fly into Delaware as opposed to bigger city airports.
After Labor Day, Goff says Avelo plans to increase the frequency of some destinations. Myrtle Beach, Tampa and Wilmington, North Carolina, will be offered three days a week instead of two.
Goff adds Daytona Beach is one of the most requested to return, so they are working to bring that destination back as soon as possible.
Last fall, Avelo suspended several destinations for scheduled maintenance on their Delaware-based planes.
Flight bookings are available through early November, and the holiday schedule through New Years will be available soon too.