Avelo Airlines made its first flight out of the Dayton International Airport on Friday, January 13. The airlinewill make a non-stop route to Orlando International Airport on Mondays and Fridays every week.
The flight on Friday to Orlando, was fully booked, with 189 passengers on the Boeing 737 jet.
One of them was Rick Adkins, who was going to Orlando to celebrate his birthday with his twin sister.
“I’m really excited! It’s nice to have a non-stop flight out of Dayton, an affordable one,” Adkins said.
Courtney Goff, communications manager at Avelo Airlines, said the turnout was promising, and the company is already exploring other destinations from Dayton.
“We're really excited that the community has embraced Avelo on this very first flight and filled it up,” she said. “We’re already looking as we continue to acquire more planes, to see how we can expand in Dayton and how we can just grow our footprint here.”
A low-cost carrier based in Houston, Avelo flies to 34 destinations, including Los Angeles’ Hollywood Burbank Airport and Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
The mayor of Dayton, Jeff Mims said the city was looking forward to more partnerships with Avelo, and what it would bring to the Dayton region.
“We look forward to growing with the Avelo because we have the demand for air travel in Dayton,” he said. “We have the community that wants air travel, visit other places and always come back home here to the Dayton region.”
Last year, more than 600,000 passengersflew out of Dayton, as the airport showed signs of travel numbers bouncing back.
