phluser wrote:NJFlyer27 wrote:B6SpiritofEWR wrote:I think ACY would be the perfect market for Avelo. The market is a little price sensitive but there is demand there. NK has really pulled back in the past few years or so because they moved a lot of the capacity up to EWR and PHL. Avelo should fill this void with a smaller version of what they did in HVN.
ACY has been Spirit’s territory for years. I don’t think they would give up their turf that easily. I believe Spirit is missing the boat on seasonal trips (2-4 times a week) to ACY from Midwestern cities. DTW, ORD, IND, CLE, PIT, CHM, etc.
In regards to setting up shop at a new airport, I think Avelo should consider SWF. It’s far enough away from HVN and the airport is an hour drive from millions of people living within Northern NJ, Westchester, Rockland, Orange County, and Western CT.
Yes, Allegiant and Frontier operate weekly out of SWF.
However, there is plenty of gate space. RSW, PBI, TPA would have no direct competition.
I was thinking ACY- RDU and CLT as first routes, as many from NJ have relocated to NC over the Midwest. Spirit used to fly seasonal ORD and DTW but it moved to PHL and Frontier was able to capture out ULCC on the comparable out of TTN and PHL.
It’d be rotten if Avelo added ACY-NC and then Spirit adds them just to pressure Avelo out. I haven’t seen Spirit do that type of response though.
Anyways I’m surprised Avelo is willing to compete against Spirit, Frontier, Southwest and Delta on RDU-MCO even though all carriers are light on frequency, but still how does it differentiate itself.
And HVN-BWI seems like flying over Amtrak and maybe not too far by drive. Is that route to appeal to business or leisure passengers?
I'd like to see them end up at SWF as well, perhaps at some point, maybe once they feel HVN has matured more. Frontier and Allegiant give it the bare minimum and Jetblue has never returned post pandemic. Western CT where the major population is centered around I-84 and Route 7, and Putnam County, NY have been growing areas in that region with people leaving NYC and lower Westchester during the Pandemic.
HVN is inconvenient. not as bad as BDL. HPN and SWF can be equidistant in some cases.
The problem I always run into with SWF is the price. When comparing to other options, Jetblue always charged more than HPN, LGA or JFK. Airtran kept prices low there during its run.
Norwegian showed success there during their time because they stimulated the market with low fares.
My job in Danbury brings me into contact with your "Averae Leisure traveler" pretty often. People knew about Norwegian and had or were planning to try them out if dorky me mentioned airlines. So far, no one has heard about Avelo yet.
People generally love the experience of flying from SWF. You can park in long term parking for $10 a day AND walk to the terminal. There are not a whole lot of Amenities Pre or Post security, but especially post security it is rather spacious. I've seen it with 3-4 departues going at at once, it looked busy. That many at HPN and its a madhouse with nowhere to sit. You also have a good sized Hudson News with some food offerings vs some vending machines and a nameless coffee stand at HPN
So, I think Avelo can work at both airports
As for Pennsylvania, there are a variety of options. Only if they took over the Boscov's Charters could I see them flying in/out. Add another FL city or couple more frequencies and get some instant name recognition out there and see how it goes