Avelo begins flights from NoCo Regional Airport

LOVELAND — Avelo Airlines began flying from Northern Colorado Regional Airport on Wednesday.

Two flights a week between the airport and Burbank, California, were announced in July; the airport commission approved a service agreement with Avelo in September.

Flights are Wednesdays and Saturdays. At the time the route was announced, introductory fares were set at $49, excluding baggage and seat assignment fees; currently they’re $39. The planes are 189-seat Boeing 737-800 jets. Today’s first flight wasn’t full, Avelo spokesperson Jim Olson acknowledged.

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“We still have some seats to fill and some work to do,” he said. “If the momentum continues we saw and felt today, we hope to add more flights down the road.”

“From the airport’s perspective, we certainly hope that the region supports this new service,” said Airport Director Jason Licon. This can “make it a long-term success [and] demonstrate the potential for additional service offerings in the future.”

Avelo’s first flight was in April, from its base in Burbank to Santa Rosa, in the state’s wine country. The airline flies to about a dozen cities connecting Southern California travelers to “beautiful, activity-packed  outdoor destinations” — Northern Colorado, Northern California, Utah and the Pacific Northwest — and “simple, affordable, ultra-convenient” flying from those locations to the Los Angeles area and back.

CEO Andrew Levy called Northern Colorado “one of the world’s most beautiful and popular vacation destinations,” in a press release. The Avelo website calls the airport’s cities Loveland and Fort Collins “the culture capital of Northern Colorado.”

The release said the airline’s on-time performance run rate over the last 90 days was 90% with only two flight cancellations.

Avelo plans to add flights from an east coast base in New Haven, Connecticut to five cities in Florida, beginning in November. New Haven is “in the broader New York City corridor,” as Northern Colorado Regional is in a wider Denver orbit.

It has also suspended flights to some markets, including Grand Junction, and changed course on flights it had announced to others, such as Monterey, California and St. George, Utah.

Olson said as a new airline, “you want to be trying and testing” and some markets that didn’t get service, in part due to the emergence of the Delta variant of COVID-19 or rental-car shortages, could get a second look.

Avelo is based in Houston; its parent company is Houston Air Holdings Inc.Avelo is backed by $125 million in individual and private equity investment. Levy was chief financial officer with United Airlines and a cofounder and president of Allegiant Air, which previously flew to Northern Colorado Regional Airport, ending service in 2012.