Avelo Airlines is planning to launch an operational base north of the San Francisco Bay Area – and close its base in Las Vegas. The US start-up carrier said on 30 January it plans to position two Boeing 737NGs and about 50 employees – including pilots, flight attendants and maintenance technicians – at Charles Schulz Sonoma County airport starting on 1 May. Meanwhile, the carrier is planning to close its base in Las Vegas on 30 April, Avelo tells FlightGlobal. It will continue flying to Harry Reid International airport but determined that Sonoma is a better location for a base because it is closer to Avelo’s headquarters in Burbank, California. ”Also, as a smaller, secondary airport, [Sonoma] is similar to the other small, fast, friendly and easy airports we serve around the country,” the carrier says. Avelo opened its base in Las Vegas in September 2023. Avelo Airlines intends to firm its presence in proximity to the Bay Area with an operational base in Sonoma. The ultra-low-cost carrier says it has flown some 300,000 passengers to and from Sonoma since April 2021. It currently flies to four cities from its planned station in Northern California – Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Bend (Oregon) and Palm Springs (California). Sonoma will become one of six of Avelo’s operational bases in the USA, and part of a strategy that involves flying to underserved medium-sized metro areas and secondary airports near major urban centres. <br/>
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The CEO of Flair Airlines is criticizing media coverage of the airline’s tax debts as “sensationalist” and claiming that his company’s bills have had no impact on operations. This month, it was revealed that Flair owes $67.2m in unpaid taxes and that the Canada Revenue Agency obtained an order for the seizure and sale of the carrier's property. In a Wednesday interview, Flair CEO Stephen Jones dismissed the prospect of the CRA confiscating Flair aircraft, and repeatedly criticized the news media’s framing of the story. “I don't think it does our customers and consumers in Canada any favours for you guys to be putting the more sensationalist angle on this,” Jones told BNN Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman. “The real story is that Flair is here delivering affordable airfares to Canadians and commentators will say what commentators will say, but we're the ones in the front line bringing affordable travel to Canadians.” Jones would not disclose how much Flair pays monthly to service its debt or how much it has paid off thus far. But he reiterated that the airline is not going anywhere. “We've got a plan in place,” he said. “We're fully current with it and nobody's going to be seizing and selling the assets of Flair.” Jones also pledged that flights will not be impacted by the airline’s tax debts.<br/>
Spanish carrier Volotea is aiming to add three or four aircraft to its fleet in 2024 as it looks to continue on a growth trajectory that has powered it significantly beyond its pre-Covid offering. The privately owned airline outlined its plans for the coming year on 30 January, alongside an initial review of its performance in 2023, when it achieved revenue of “around E700m ($758m)” and “historic financial margins for a company with just over 10 years of existence”. That revenue estimate compares with reported figures of E557m in 2022 and E441m in the last pre-pandemic year, 2019. Volotea is yet to provide more detail on its financial performance in 2023, including its profitability. In August last year it reported a net loss of E138m for 2022, citing a significant rise in costs, notably including jet fuel. The carrier notes that it operated “an extensive network of over 410 routes” during 2023, “with more than 50% exclusively operated by the carrier”. It is aiming to increase that network to 450 routes this year – with a continued focus on more than half of those being exclusive to Volotea – while offering between 12.5m and 13m seats, which equates to a rise of 12-16% year on year.<br/>