Avelo Airlines Scales Down Operations At New North Carolina Base

U.S. carrier Avelo Airlines has pulled back from building up its new base at North Carolina's Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (USA), dropping six routes.

The airline still plans to base crew and at least one Boeing 737NG at USA. Included in the cuts are two routes launched from the airport in April and another two that had been planned for May starts.

USA is located about 20 mi. from Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). Avelo opened a base at USA on March 6, viewing it as a less-crowded alternative to CLT that could appeal to passengers. CLT is an American Airlines hub.

In addition to connecting USA to smaller markets, the airline also planned to operate flights from the airport to several major airports. Two routes from USA opened earlier this month will be cut by the end of April: Daytona Beach, Florida, and Nashville, Tennessee. Two USA routes targeted for launches in May have also been dropped: Detroit (a Delta Air Lines hub) and Washington Dulles (a United Airlines hub).

Avelo will also stop serving Albany, New York, and Lakeland, Florida, from USA at the end of April. Both routes were launched in 2024.

“These [six] routes had poor performance indicators and were not booking in the normal pattern we like to see,” an Avelo spokesperson told Aviation Week.

The airline will still fly to three destinations from USA: Manchester, New Hampshire, and Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) and Rochester in New York. The USA-ISP route will kick off on May 22 as planned and be flown 2X-weekly.

Houston-based Avelo also opened a new base at Wilmington International Airport in North Carolina this month. It has a base at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, which was established in 2023.