Back in July, Houston-based ultra-low-cost airline Avelo Airlines announced that it would pull out of its West Coast market entirely.
The airline that launched in 2021 and built a market flying into smaller cities not served by mainstream airlines was increasingly finding certain markets unprofitable and made the call to shut down bases in Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) and Charles M. Schulz Airport (STS), as well as axe its last flights into Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas.
“We believe the continuation service from [the above markets] in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop,” Avelo Airlines said in a statement at the time.
“Aircraft needs elsewhere and lack of demand during our final month”: Avelo Airlines
While some routes were suspended immediately when the announcement was made, the flight between Burbank and Redmond Municipal Airport (RDM) in Oregon was slated to keep running until December 2.
This week, an Avelo spokesperson confirmed that the flight will be cut six weeks earlier than planned over “aircraft needs elsewhere and lack of demand during our final month.”
The last flight that the carrier runs on the West Coast will now be suspended on Oct. 20. The airline also said that anyone who already had tickets booked will be contacted by Avelo with rebooking or refund options.
“If the next available flight time is not a viable option for you, we’ll offer to move you seven days before or after your scheduled departure date (same origin and destination) waiving any difference in fare or […] cancel your reservation on the impacted flight and refund your purchase to your original form of payment,” Avelo currently states on its website.
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By January 2026, Avelo will also suspend all service into Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MRT) as it weighs whether it will renew some seasonal flights by the following summer.
The airline had previously run flights into the secondary airport an hour’s drive outside of Boston from North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham, Wilmington, and Concord-Padgett, along with South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach.
Along with flagging traffic, Avelo has also faced reputational issues and consistent protests over its choice to keep running deportation flights for the Trump administration.
“We just rebooked with United”: Some Avelo travelers left stranded
After chief executive Andrew Levy called the contracts with the federal government “controversial [but…] too valuable not to pursue,” the airline faced protests in states including Arizona, Oregon, New York, Washington, Connecticut, and North Carolina throughout the summer and spring.
Prior to the airline formally confirming that the Burbank-Redmond flight would be suspended earlier than expected, some passengers took to social media platform Reddit to say that they were receiving text message updates about flights they had purchased just a few weeks earlier.
“I got a text at 6:43 p.m. saying our flights were canceled,” a Redditor under the username /Bnaks_ wrote on Sept. 18. “We were supposed to be flying down in the last week of October. We just rebooked with United but it was basically an extra $350 (our Avelo flight was $315, and our United flight is $665).”
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