Ground crew members prepare an Avelo plane for boarding. The discount carrier focuses on smaller, secondary airports, so passengers often embark and disembark on the tarmac.
Ground crew members prepare an Avelo plane for boarding. The discount carrier focuses on smaller, secondary airports, so passengers often embark and disembark on the tarmac. | Avelo Airlines
1-minute read

After alert Reddit users noticed a curious white-out on the website calendar of Avelo flights from Lakeland Linder International Airport to Charlotte/Concord, North Carolina — the scheduled flights seem to end in two weeks — we contacted Avelo.

“We have canceled the route between Lakeland and Charlotte/Concord,” Avelo Communications Manager Courtney Goff said Tuesday.

The route, Goff said, “had poor performance indicators.”

The last flight from Lakeland to Charlotte will be April 28.

Avelo Airlines offers nonstop passenger flights from Lakeland Linder International Airport. | Avelo Airlines

Avelo began round-trip service from Lakeland to Charlotte six months ago, in a package of seven new destinations from Lakeland.

In January, it canceled its Lakeland-Atlanta route because not enough passengers were using it.

In March, Avelo announced it would halt its route from Lakeland to the Manchester, New Hampshire, airport, near Boston, at the end of this month, again because there were not enough passengers.

“They have to be able to generate revenue to operate as a business,” Lakeland Airport Director Kris Hallstrand said at the time.

Also in March, Avelo announced two new routes from Lakeland, to Grand Rapids, Michigan and Long Island, New York, beginning in June.

And earlier this month, Avelo announced it had found a new way to aid its growth and to protect jobs: flying deportation flights from Arizona for U.S. Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) as part of a “long-term charter program.”

The ICE flights are scheduled to begin in May.

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Robert Meyerowitz has been a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent. He covered Central America and the Middle East, he was the cofounder and editor of the Anchorage Press in Alaska, and he taught journalism at the University of Alaska. He comes to Lakeland from Park City, Utah, where he edited The Park Record.

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7 Comments

  1. The Lakeland-Atlanta route, which most feel would be quite popular, was not given sufficient time. As I recall, Avelo cancelled the Atlanta route within weeks of coming to Lakeland.

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  2. Avelo out of Lakeland is a slow motion fail in progress. They will cancel all Lakeland service by the end of this year. With Tampa, Orlando and Sarasota airports within 45 – 90 minutes of Lakeland they cannot be successful.

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  3. The flight times they offered were very limited. I think more choices and more advertising would have been helpful. Also Asheville NC to Lakeland would likely be more successful. Hope another airline will take up this route.

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  6. Given the scale of financial risks involved, it’s practically heroic that they tried. We need more businesses with such spirit. I hope, with time, Avelo will find the right formula and connections to make this work.

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  7. We flew Avelo to New Haven and hoped they could make a go of flying out of Lakeland Linder. Now with the news of their contract with ICE we will not be a customer. Back to Tampa or Orlando.

    Reply
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