- October 12, 2024
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Starting June 22, Daytona Beach International Airport will welcome its first ultra-low cost carrier, Avelo Airlines, which will offer two flights a week to southern Connecticut.
The airline’s service was announced at the DAB on Wednesday, April 5, making Avelo the third airline to currently offer flights out of the airport. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines are the other companies using the airport.
“We are thrilled to welcome Avelo, our airport’s first low-fare carrier, to Daytona Beach and Volusia County,” DAB Director Karen Feaster said in a news release. “This service opens our area to a market of travelers who now are only a direct flight away from our beautiful beaches, miles of nature trails and endless opportunities for fun and sun. Plus, our community now has direct flight options to one of our more popular travel regions.”
Avelo will fly a Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft on Thursdays and Sundays to Tweed-New Haven Airport.
Avelo Airlines Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy said in the news release that Avelo looks forward to introducing the Daytona Beach region to his airline’s “low fares, industry-leading reliability and caring service.”
“With hometown airport access to Southern Connecticut, travel from DAB is now easier than ever,” Levy said. “This new route will also make it easy for Connecticut residents to discover all that Daytona Beach has to offer.”
Before Avelo could take flight, the Volusia County Council had to make a decision: Should it approve the creation of a $1 million fund to mitigate the financial risk of the airline’s start-up costs, in case the carrier doesn’t meet its revenue projections?
They wouldn’t know which airline it was until after approving the fund.
The council discussed the matter for over an hour and a half on Tuesday, April 4, and ultimately voted 4-2 in favor of the fund, with Councilmen Don Dempsey and Danny Robins voting against.
“We’re in the airport business,” Councilman David Santiago said. “Some of us may think it’s an unfortunate part of the airport business, but we’re in the airport business, and we’ve got to operate like we’re in the airport business.”
DAB has not added a new airline since 2019. The airlines added that year — Silver Airways and Sunwing Airlines — no longer service the airport. In 2019, JetBlue also stopped flying into DAB.
Cyrus Callum, county director of aviation and economic resources, told the council at the meeting that the airport and the county had been engaged in conversations with the ultra-low cost carrier — which turned out to be Avelo — for the past two years, since the airline was created in 2021.
The fund would allocate $500,000 for each of the routes Avelo plans to operate. A second route to a mid-Atlantic location will be announced later this year.
Avelo would only have access to the funds if it fails to meet its revenue projections. The county estimated the economic impact of adding Avelo at over $11.5 million based on lodging, food and other tourism-related expenditures.
“So that’s a huge return on investment for these two flights, and that’s also not including the jobs that it would create and the other benefits,” Feaster said at the council meeting.
These agreements, she added, are standard in the industry, and allow smaller airports like DAB to afford and sustain flights, and demonstrate that the need is present. This agreement would also be the first of its kind for the airport.
JetBlue and Silver Airlines had a “travel bank” agreement with the county and DAB, in which companies agreed to purchase flights through the respective airline.
At first, County Councilman Troy Kent was skeptical of the agreement, noting that the airline would only fly out of the airport twice weekly while American and Delta, by comparison, fly every day.
“My big concern is repeating something this county has already done, which is giving away a wheelbarrow or dump truck full of money,” he said.
Then when the money is gone, the air carrier leaves.
Callum said that once the airline begins its second route, Avelo would service the airport four days a week, with an annual 18,000 net inbound visitors.
“The main reason people drive to Orlando right now is because of fares, and having an ultra-low cost carrier in your market does something to the fares,” Callum said.
He likened the fund to putting training wheels on a bike: Once the airline is stable, the training wheels come off, and the air service is sustained because the community uses the airline.
With the addition of Avelo, the county hopes to diversify the market, Callum said. A second airline is waiting in the wings, Callum said, though the county has yet to receive a proposal.
“It’s a wait and see game,” he said. “[Airlines] are waiting for that first domino to fall, and this is that first domino.”
This airline will work, County Council Chair Jeff Brower said, adding that he had confidence in the county’s negotiations.
“We need other airlines here, and then you’ll be able to go and bring in two more airlines,” Brower said.
Robins said he would have felt more comfortable if the agreement was cut to $250,000 per route, for a total of $500,000 in the fund.
“I’m just trying to lower the risk for our people, because between inflation, the stuff going on with the banks and no, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but the worldly events, these wars that are going on — I mean, there’s so much right now,” Robins said. “I still think we need to be tight in this.”
Dempsey said he was concerned about the fund because he’s seen firsthand how volatile the airline industry is. With fuel costs high and other economic indicators pointing to a downturn, he wasn’t comfortable with the proposal.
“I just don’t know if this is a good time to be betting a million dollars of taxpayer money on a startup business,” Dempsey said.
The airlines need the airport, and the airport needs the airlines, Callum said.
“I think that if we were to move forward with this and you get an ultra-low cost carrier into the market, then you’ll start to see Delta and American adjust their fares as well,” Callum said. “The airlines follow each other.”
Since it was founded in 2021, Avelo has flown over two million customers on almost 17,000 nonstop flights, according to a news release.
The airline serves 43 destinations in 24 states. Introductory one-way fares between DAB and HVN will start at $49.
