Avelo Airlines coming to Wilmington International Airport; Three non-stop destinations announced

WILMINGTON (WWAY) – A brand new low-cost airline carrier is coming to Wilmington International Airport, airline officials made the announcement Thursday at ILM.

Airport director Jeff Bourk could barely contain his excitement.

“Hello Avelo, low fares have arrived,” he said. “$29 fares to Baltimore, $39 dollar fares to New Haven – Connecticut and $49 dollar fares to Orlando, unbelievable.”

“We have 1.1 million people in our catchment area, and now they have access to low fares,” he said.

The airline looked at multiple cities but in the end went with Wilmington, according to Avelo’s Communications Manager Courtney Goff.

“We see that Wilmington has, not only a destination for inbound customers, but we know that the people of Wilmington and island beaches also want to get on some non-stop, low cost flights to great cities,” she said.

The relatively new airline got their start on the West Coast out of Burbank – California, Thursday marks their first anniversary.

Laura Nitsos is visiting Wilmington from New Mexico.

“I think it’s great to have airlines that will fly short distances for low prices and get you to these places that you normally can’t get to,” said Nitsos.

Brecken Boelter is a student at UNCW, she said Orlando is a destination she is looking forward to going to.

“I’m going to use my really cheap flight to go to Orlando and have all that extra Disney money to spend there,” she said.

The airline started their East Coast base in New Haven about 5 months ago.

The new routes start June 30 and July 1, and will operate on Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft which will fly out of ILM three times a week.

The introductory prices will be available until May 5th – according to Avelo’s spokeswoman, the fares shouldn’t go up more than $30.