Avelo Airlines Adds Two New Cleveland Routes After Frontier Cuts, Spirit Exit

This article was published through an exclusive content-sharing agreement with neo-trans.blog.

Shortly after low-fare carriers Frontier Airlines announced service reductions and Spirit Airlines announced it was ceasing its remaining service to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, a new low-fare airline is stepping in to fill the void with two new routes.

Avelo Airlines and the Cleveland Airport System made the announcement official hours after an airline blogger broke the news. And Avelo has already put the expansion into its reservations system — new routes to Charlotte-Concord, NC and to New Haven, CT that will start Friday, June 19. Travelers can book travel online now.

With fares as low as $39 one-way, the ultra-low-fare airlines’ two new routes will operate twice a week and on the same days — Fridays and Mondays. Flights leave from Tweed New Haven Airport at 9:20 a.m. and leave from Cleveland for New Haven at 11:48 a.m.

And on Fridays and Mondays, flights leave from Charlotte-Concord at 2:26 p.m. and return to Charlotte-Concord, leaving from Cleveland at 4:40 p.m. The Concord-Padgett Regional Airport is located on the northeast side of Charlotte.

Boeing 737-800 aircraft are to be used for both new routes. But Avelo’s seating configurations for the 737s are among the tightest in the industry, with up to 189 seats and as little as 29 inches of seat pitch, noted ThePointsGuy blog.

Their online route map was updated this morning to show its new routes to Cleveland as well as to Indianapolis. Cleveland is Avelo’s first new destination to an Ohio market.

“We’re excited to bring our affordable fares, convenient travel experience, and industry-leading reliability to Northeast Ohio with new nonstop service,” said Avelo Airlines Founder and CEO Andrew Levy in a written statement. “These new routes expand travel options for Cleveland-area customers, making it easier and more affordable than ever to get to two great Avelo destinations.”

Houston-based Avelo Airlines began operations in 2021. Avelo’s expansion to Cleveland coincidentally arrived just as its local service by low-fare carriers was in a shake-up. Avelo Communications Manager Courtney Goff told NEOtrans “We have been working with CLE for a long while on this; this was not a recent decision.”

As part of a nationwide restructuring, Spirit announced on Feb. 28 that it would end on April 15 its lone, remaining service to Cleveland — a single daily nonstop to Fort Lauderdale, FL for as little as $200.

But a larger void came from Frontier Airlines cutting service to Charlotte, New York-LaGuardia and Boston. New Haven is located roughly midway between New York and Boston. Frontier also announced in November cuts or “pauses” in services to Raleigh-Durham, Austin, Dallas and Nashville.

“Avelo’s arrival in Cleveland is a win for travelers,” said Scott Carr, Cleveland Airport System’s assistant director of commercial business and revenue. “These new nonstop routes expand affordable travel options for Northeast Ohio residents while strengthening Cleveland’s connectivity to a growing list of nonstop destinations.”

The scoop on Avelo Airlines’ expansion to Cleveland was posted today on social media by Ishrion Aviation, an airline industry news outlet that reports on service changes. The posting also noted two new routes to Indianapolis from New Haven and Charlotte-Concord.

Avelo typically looks for smaller, less-expensive airports to serve. It may have previously explored service into Downtown Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport. A report by Cleveland.com suggested the city was holding up Avelo’s expansion here by not being receptive to its use of Burke.

After a city-commissioned report suggested there was more value to be gained by closing Burke and redeveloping than in keeping it open, the city began pursuing its closure among federal officials. Alas, Avelo opted to expand to Cleveland anyway.

Cleveland is pursuing a $1.6 billion, five-step modernization of Hopkins International Airport. Work is already under way in developing an interim parking facility next to Terminal D so that the Smart Parking Garage can be demolished and new, large garage built just east of it.

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