NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It's up, up, and away for Avelo Airlines!
Houston-based Avelo hit the sky on their 100th day of service celebration at Tweed New Haven Airport on Friday.
"Now we’re here at 100 days and we’re looking towards the future," said Issac Naylor, base manager for Avelo Airlines.
Avelo is a new airline with its first flight ever in April 2021, and its first flight out of New Haven in November 2021.
Despite the short time, they’ve already served thousands of customers and plan on serving thousands more.
"In this part of Connecticut, a lot of people like to say they live 15 or 20 minutes from the airport," said Naylor. "You’re not going into traffic in a city like New York and you’re not having to drive to the other side of the state, so it’s really really accessible for the community.".
Avelo Airlines offers six destinations to Florida from New Haven: Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Palm Beach, Tampa and Sarasota.
The airline offers affordable flights and tries to stand out from the competition.
"We make sure we put our customers first and our crew members first so we believe in the utmost customer service and being nice," said Naylor.
Kristine Jermine says the COVID-19 pandemic made her realize she wasn't happy with her office job and decided to make her new office above the clouds.
"I really wanted a job that helps people and makes a difference," said Jermine. "For the most part, everyone is just so happy. When I come to work people tell me all the time how happy they are that we’re here and how convenient Tweed Airport is."
The airline said it is adding more than a hundred employees to their New Haven-based staff along with new territory.
"It’s so exciting to see the growth. "We’re going to start adding more destinations to other places other than just Florida," said Jermine.
The presence of Avelo at New Haven helped provided needed infrastructure upgrades.
“We did about a $10 million project in just about a month,” Sean Scanlon, the Executive Director of the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority said in November.
Avelo CEO Andrew Levy said he remains hopeful that by the end of the first quarter of 2022, the airline will be adding a non-Florida destination and fourth jet to the fleet based at Tweed.
Lindsey Kane is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at Lkane@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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