Airline announces new service at Albany International Airport (Rochester, Syracuse: schools, university)

[ckhthankgod]

"A new air carrier will begin local nonstop flights to Raleigh-Durham International Airport in May. Fares will start at $62 one-way.

Flights between Albany International Airport and Raleigh will be on Mondays and Fridays to start, beginning on May 10, said Courtney Goff, communications director for Avelo Airlines. The airline made the announcement Thursday at the Albany International Airport.

“We’ve done the math,” Goff said, explaining that Avelo executives concluded there is a market for flights between Albany and Raleigh-Durham.

Albany and Raleigh are capital cities and, perhaps more importantly, technology hubs.

Raleigh-Durham is part of the Research Triangle region, which for decades has been known for technology research and development affiliated with local schools including Duke, University of North Carolina and North Carolina State.

Albany, likewise, has emerged as a technology center, with the development of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Global Foundries microchip factory in Malta.

“This nonstop flight will place you in North Carolina’s Research Triangle in just a couple of hours, providing great connectivity between two capital cities and high-tech regions,” said airport CEO Phil Calderone.
.
Avelo was started in 2021 flying from Las Vegas to Sonoma, Calif.

They have since carved out a niche by serving smaller airports with direct flights at low fares. They fly Boeing 737s, and Albany marks their 48th destination in 23 states and Puerto Rico.

Avelo serves airports in New Haven, Conn., Manchester, N.H, Mobile, Ala., and Brownsville, Texas, among others.

The airline on Thursday also announced the start of new routes between Rochester and Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. and between Manchester, N.H. and Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C."

Source: https://www.timesunion.com/business/...0colonie%20now

[ckhthankgod]

Nonstop flights between Albany and Las Vegas are back: https://www.timesunion.com/business/...ly%20headlines

"Over the last decade, Southwest has added nonstop flights between Albany and Las Vegas, and then taken them away.

Albany International Airport announced Monday that as of August, the service is back after a more than six-year hiatus.

Direct flights begin Aug. 5 and fly to and from Las Vegas on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.

“I am thrilled that Southwest Airlines will be returning their nonstop service ... a popular destination for travelers both here in the Capital Region and beyond,” airport CEO Phil Calderone said in a statement. “Today’s announcement underscores the ongoing success at (Albany International Airport) and our commitment to working with airlines to best serve the nearly 1.4 million passengers who travel through ALB annually.”

This direct flight is being added one day after Southwest is ending all service at Hancock International Airport in Syracuse — an affiliation that started in 2021 during the pandemic.

Southwest has not been consistent in its service to the Nevada gambling mecca. A previous Times Union story noted such flights were added in 2000 when Southwest began using Albany International Airport. In April 2017, Southwest ended the nonstop service in favor of direct flights to Denver — only to pick the Las Vegas flights back up for only a month in October 2018, according to airport spokesman Steve Smith.

In 2019, Southwest also had to curtail all flights using 737 Max aircrafts after they were grounded across the world in the aftermath of two crashes.

In other direct flight updates, Avelo Airlines last week announced it was set to begin twice-weekly nonstop flights between Albany and Raleigh-Durham, N.C."