The Lakeland City Commission unanimously approved a 15-year agreement between the city and Avelo Airlines on Monday, embarking on a new era of passenger service at Lakeland Linder International Airport.
The vote came with no comments from the public and just a few days’ notice on the City Commission agenda.
“Our purpose is to inspire travel,” Trevor Yealy, director of Avelo’s commercial flights, told city commissioners. “We look forward to bringing our low fares and industry-leading reliability, as measured by on-time performance and completion factors, to the customers in this area.”
Yealy would not say which airports Avelo would carry Lakeland passengers to or from once service begins in late May or early June, but there was some talk of Michigan locations because of Lakeland’s longstanding connection with the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers have held their spring training in Lakeland since 1934. Avelo currently serves Lansing and Kalamazoo.
Yealy said route information would be publicized in the next few months.
Assistant City Attorney Ramona Siriani noted that 1.4 million people live closer to Lakeland Linder than they do to either the Tampa or Orlando international airports, although officials know not all of them will use Lakeland.
“Our goal is to not be Tampa or Orlando,” Airport Executive Director Kris Hallstrand told commissioners Monday morning. “Our goal is to be Lakeland and the best Lakeland can be. And what that entails in the future, that’s what Lakeland needs to do.”
The proposal includes:
- The operating agreement with Avelo will take effect on May 1 and last 15 years, with an optional 5-year extension if both parties agree. Avelo gets preferential use of three of the four aircraft parking positions, four of the five ticket counters, and the one passenger hold room.
- The city will spend up to $30,000 a year in marketing support for the passenger service and will waive its landing fees, per-turn fees, fuel fees and rent for two years from Avelo’s first flight. It will also partner with the county to put tourism information and a visitor information desk in the terminal building.
- Avelo will operate out of temporary prefabricated maintenance and operations offices and storage buildings until permanent offices and maintenance facilities are built.
- HDR Engineering, Inc. will prepare architectural design plans for terminal modifications and site improvements at the airport, and see the project through the permitting process, at a cost of $93,150.
- Johnson Laux Construction will do about $1.6 million of renovations to the terminal, including hold room seating, checkpoints and improving rental car offices.
- Dormakaba USA will install one-way exit lanes for disembarking passengers and secure areas for screened travelers by March 31 at a cost of $95,000.
Too fast? Or at long last?
Although given the opportunity to do so, no one from the public came to the microphone to speak either for or against passenger service at Lakeland Linder. The meeting — just one week before Christmas — was sparsely attended.
Public support on social media has been overwhelmingly in favor of the airline service.
“About time some changes have been made,” Yvonne Coy wrote on LkldNow’s Facebook page. “I took Avelo into Wilmington, North Carolina. It was great service.”
But City Attorney Palmer Davis wanted it noted for the record that local attorney Trey Harden wrote a three-page letter to city officials outlining his position against the proposal.
In the letter, Harden noted that city officials entered into “secret” negotiations with Amazon in 2017 before that agreement was signed in 2019. Harden further stated that LkldNow and The Ledger published stories on Dec. 14, “indicating that the city has again been involved in clandestine negotiations with Avelo to enter into an agreement for Avelo to operate a passenger airline service from Lakeland Linder.”
“To my knowledge, the newspaper articles were the first notice given to the residents of Lakeland of the proposed agreement. Four days later, on December 18, 2023, the City Commission is poised to approve the agreement,” Harden wrote.
City officials explained that because the agenda item was an agreement, it did not require multiple public readings. It has been public knowledge for at least five years that the city has been actively trying to lure commercial service to the airport.
Harden complained that, as Amazon continues to expand its operations in Lakeland, it will ultimately have 5,840 flight operations into and out of Lakeland. He said the agreement with Avelo will eventually add up to five flights a day — or another 1,825 annually.
“The city has no language in the proposed agreement with Avelo to mitigate noise and emissions issues,” Harden wrote.
There have been multiple noise complaints regarding Amazon’s jets. Hallstrand has worked with The Hughes Corporation to create a different flight path that utilizes flying over the Polk Parkway until about Cleveland Heights Boulevard, when planes will start to shift southward as they line up with the east-west runway.
Hallstrand expects Federal Aviation Administration Approval of that new flight path in the next two months.
“But nothing in the operating agreement makes use of this approach a requirement,” Harden wrote. “Additionally, there is no language in the operating agreement requiring Avelo to use prescribed departure routes.”
Hallstrand told commissioners on Friday that Avelo’s aircraft are the same size as Amazon’s blue jets, which are Boeing 737s, and smaller than Amazon’s white jets, which are Boeing 767s.
“So size-wise, it’s what we have right now currently flying out of the airport,” Hallstrand said.
Hoping the third time’s the charm
Avelo is not the first airline to offer passenger service from Lakeland, but it’s hoping the timing and its business model will help it succeed where two previous companies failed.
In 2011, Lakeland Linder had an agreement with Direct Air, a charter company, but that passenger service fizzled out nine months later after carriers went unpaid and Direct Air filed for bankruptcy. Comair also operated out of Lakeland Linder in 1988, but lasted just three months.
Part of Avelo’s business model is to focus on smaller, secondary airports and emphasize recreational destinations. On its website, Avelo explains: “Because we travel to smaller, more convenient airports, you can expect a smoother, more caring travel experience.”
Avelo more than doubled the number of destinations it serves in its first year, going from 12 to 27. It now has a presence in 45 cities — everywhere from Arcata, Calif., to Yellowstone, Mont. But some locations have been discontinued, including Melbourne.
Avelo currently offers direct flights from Tampa and Orlando to 11 cities on Boeing 737-700s, which can seat 147 passengers, and Boeing 737-800s, with a capacity of 189.
Lakeland resident John Stephen Lane, Sr., derided the agreement on LldlNow’s Facebook page, saying the airline should use smaller jets, particularly as service ramps up.
“A reality check is needed here,” Lane wrote. “First, Avelo themselves are wasting their time and effort in Lakeland. Why? The aircraft they use are not suitable for the market(s) they could possibly serve. They are too large period.”
He recommended the E175 as “a perfect fit for Lakeland, through the existing feeder systems of the legacy carriers.” Those jets seat between 78 to 88 passengers and could be used to ferry passengers to and from Avelo’s hubs in Burbank, Calif., Las Vegas, Nevada, New Haven, Conn., Orlando, Raleigh/Durham, N.C. and Wilmington, Del.
“Just because the market exists doesn’t mean Lakelanders will take advantage of it initially,” he warned. “On the plus side, infrastructure improvements will be a carrot to some else who can properly serve Lakeland.”
About $3.4 million worth of work to shore up infrastructure and install security systems was set to begin Monday following the vote.
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By Mr. Harden’s calculations there will be a total of 7,665 flights a year, which is 21 flights a day, which is less than 1 per hour. Lakeland is not some sleepy rural city anymore and a lot of us wish it were. What once was, will never be again! With progress, come change, and we must change our minds or we’ll never change anything, and we must change to be successful. Welcome to Lakeland Avelo.
The public knows better than to comment… their concerns will be summarily dismissed anyway.
As with any Community that is dealing with Growing Pains, it needs to realize that if they do not keep up with the growth with street and highway expansion they will fall into the same old Traffic Trap like has happened to many other small towns. Looking at the slow progress with Pipkin Road, it could very well happen here.