The Connecticut Airport Authority revealed Thursday that Avelo Airlines would pull out of Bradley International Airport and said it is “disappointed and surprised” and “particularly its decision to cancel the state’s only nonstop service to Montego Bay, Jamaica.”
“The CAA is especially disappointed on behalf of the community, which has fought so hard to secure nonstop service to Jamaica over recent years,” the authority said in an email.
Alisa D. Sisic, of the Connecticut Airport Authority, said Thursday, “Avelo notified the CAA of the service suspension yesterday.”
A message seeking comment was sent to Avelo.
The budget carrier Avelo launched service from Tweed in November, 2021 and announced plans to establish operations at Bradley last summer, with the first flights departing Nov. 7.
In January, the low-cost airline that had rapidly accelerated its route expansion in Connecticut hit the brakes, pulling the plug on three, nonstop destinations from Bradley International Airport, just two months after it began service at Connecticut’s largest commercial airport.
“Recently, as the incentivization period started drawing to a close, Avelo approached the CAA asking to be relieved of its obligation to pay rent for its terminal space through June 30, 2027,” the CAA wrote. “The CAA denied the request and will continue to deny it, as the CAA upheld its side of the contract and expects Avelo to honor its commitments regardless of its flight decisions.”
Rapidly expanding low-cost airline scraps three routes at CT airport. Here’s why.
“The decision to cancel the MBJ route is inexplicable, given the strong ridership, subsidies received, significant airport incentives, and community support,” the authority wrote.
“The CAA is puzzled why Avelo claims to have been uniquely unsuccessful at BDL despite those significant advantages and the success enjoyed by many other carriers at the airport during the same timeframe,” the authority wrote. “The cancellation of these services and Avelo’s stated reasoning for doing so also continues a disturbing trend of the airline misrepresenting facts and trying to dodge reasonable fees that other airlines pay as a regular course of business.
The authority also wrote that Avelo “recently approached the CAA asking to be relieved of its contractual obligation to pay rent for the remainder of its agreement at BDL after finishing one year of fully incentivized, rent-free operation at the airport.
“The CAA understands Avelo’s financial distress and the impacts of public backlash related to its other business decisions, but the CAA cannot relieve Avelo of its financial commitments after investing so much in the airline’s success,” the authority wrote.
“The CAA is committed to once again securing nonstop Jamaica service for its passengers and is already fielding interest from other carriers that would like to explore resuming that service.”
The CAA also also noted that “Avelo originally announced eight destinations at BDL before quickly cancelling all five domestic routes without giving them a chance to mature, even in cases with strong ridership Avelo’s Houston route showed a 70% load factor in November when it launched before spiking to nearly 96% in December (service stopped in January, route was only active for 2 months).
“Despite claiming ‘lack of demand’ for the MBJ route, the route’s load factor showed increasingly strong performance since the flight launched in November,” and “over the last four months of publicly available data (April-July), the MBJ load factor ranged from 80% in April all the way up to 95% in July. This is a very healthy load factor.”
“Avelo is actively trying to avoid its obligations, while simultaneously taking advantage of incentives,” the CAA wrote.
“On the MBJ route, Avelo has benefitted from the state’s revenue guarantee, CAA marketing assistance, and the waiver of airport landing fees and terminal rent.”
“Avelo requested to become a signatory airline at BDL in 2024, but has not paid anything to operate at the airport for the first year of their operations (the standard incentive that the CAA offers to new airlines),” CAA wrote.
“Avelo continues blaming the state’s aviation fuel user fee for impacts that are more attributable to national dynamics and their own poor business practices,” the CAA wrote. “The impact of the state’s aviation fuel user fee on a per flight basis is de minimis, and it is in line with the total taxes levied on aviation fuel in other states.”
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