Ultra-low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines is dropping its seasonal service between Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN) and Portland, Maine. The airline had only launched the connection in May through to the end of August, but was seeing rather poor load factors by all accounts.
This was the only Avelo route to the state of Maine and was the shortest flight at Portland International Jetport Airport(PWM) during its brief few months, with a block time of under an hour. The carrier flew this service two times a week until the end of August, and it will not be back for the upcoming summer season.
Avelo Drops New Haven-Maine Connection Next Year
As first reported by routes website enilria.com, Avelo will be exiting PWM for good after its final flight departed on August 31. With its inaugural flight taking off on May 21, 2025, Avelo became the only airline flying direct between Maine and South Connecticut, connecting the city of Portland to its Tweed New Haven base.
The two cities are located a little over 200 miles (320 km) from each other, with the drive typically taking around three and a half hours. PWM is the busiest airport in Maine and sees almost 2.5 million passengers each year.
Tweed New Haven is Avelo’s largest base by seat capacity, with 112,000 seats scheduled for this month. The carrier serves a total of 12 destinations out of HVN, although it faces direct competition from Breeze airways on almost half of them. While Avelo launched out of Burbank in the spring of 2021, it set up a second base at Tweed New Haven by November, which soon grew to become its biggest airport.
Very Low Load Factors
According to X account IshrionA, data from the route’s first three flights in May shows that Avelo was barely filling any seats, maintaining an average of 21% load factor from New Haven to Portland and just 11% on the return leg.
When the carrier launched the route, it was offering one-way fares as low as $44. The airline utilized its smaller Boeing 737-700 aircraft for this route, which can seat up to 149 passengers in economy. On the three roundtrips it completed in May, Avelo filled just 94 seats to Portland and 50 on the return journey.
Earlier this year, PWM Airport Director Paul Bradbury said that the New York metro area is one of the airport’s “top two markets,” with the addition of New Haven bolstering routes to LaGuardia, New York JFK and Newark served by the likes of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.
Avelo Maintains Operational Reliability But Capacity Down
In 2024, the airline was the most reliable carrier in the US, maintaining the best on-time performance (OTP) and the lowest flight cancellation rate in the country. With an OTP of 83.9%, this was two percentage points ahead of second-placed Delta and more than six ahead of the industry average.
Having posted its first profitable quarter at the tail-end of 2023, it was a promising 2024 for Avelo with its first international routes and further fleet growth. However, with its more recent financial performance being a cause for concern, the airline’s capacity is down 4% year-on-year this September, despite a 17% increase earlier in the year. This includes a significant 12% reduction in seat capacity at its Tweed New Haven base.
|
Aircraft Type |
Total |
Seating (all economy) |
Avg. Age |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Boeing 737-700 |
8 |
149 seats |
19 Years |
|
Boeing 737-800 |
14 |
189 seats |
16 Years |
It has been an eventful year for Avelo, with the carrier taking a lot of flak for operating deportation flights on behalf of the US government. It will also be exiting the West Coast entirely by the end of the year, closing down its Hollywood Burbank (BUR) base after more than four years of service.
- IATA Code
-
XP
- ICAO Code
-
VXP
- Year Founded
-
2018
