Avelo Airlines (XP, Burbank) will launch commercial flight operations later this quarter using Burbank, an airport that serves Downtown Los Angeles and the northern Greater Los Angeles area, as its inaugural base of operations.
In a statement, Avelo founder, chairman, and CEO Andrew Levy said the budget carrier would look to connect the secondary Los Angeles airport with the following unserved cities from April 28, 2021, onwards:
- Santa Rosa, CA (daily, starts April 28);
- Pasco (3x weekly, starts April 29);
- Bozeman (4x weekly, starts April 30);
- Phoenix Williams Gateway (daily, starts May 3);
- Ogden (6x weekly, starts May 4);
- Grand Junction (4x weekly, starts May 9);
- Medford (4x weekly, starts May 9);
- Eugene (4x weekly, begins May 12);
- Redmond (3x weekly, begins May 13);
- Arcata/Eureka (4x weekly, begins May 19);
- Redding Municipal (3x weekly, starts May 20).
Previously known as XTRA Airways (Fort Lauderdale International), Avelo operates a single B737-800 at present, N802XT (msn 34405). Speaking to Airlinegeeks, Levy said the airline would take delivery of three more B737-800s for use in opening up other routes. In the future, Avelo plans to target more secondary airports across the United States.
“Certainly focusing on secondary airports in big metro areas is an opportunity we think is ripe and we expect to pursue,” he said. “Burbank, to me, might be the best airport in the country. It’s certainly the best secondary airport in the country. It’s a great place to start. There are quite a few large metro areas in the United States that have viable secondary airports. Not every big metro area has them, but many of them do. And that’s interesting to us because, in most cases, either these are airports that are underutilised or they’re just unutilised.”
