Disclaimer: In exchange for a one-way ticket, I am writing this review.
As a former albeit brief resident of the St. Louis area, whenever the chance arises, I visit a couple of friends still living there. But STL is certainly not among the cheapest airports to fly to in the states. That’s why I was intrigued about the new seasonal Avelo Airlines New Haven to St. Louis route. (The roundtrip operates twice weekly, on Thursdays and Sundays.)
Avelo Airlines, a low-cost carrier with bases on the east and west coasts, only started commercial operations on 28 April 2021. Since then, it has established hubs in Burbank BUR, Sonoma County STS, and Wilmington, Delaware ILG; however, its largest hub per number of destinations served is New Haven HVN.
Having never flown Avelo Airlines, nor considered flying them (I’m typically not near any of their bases), I was curious about two things. One, the predictable “what are they like?” And two, will there be any festivities (e.g. an unnecessary water cannon salute, local food at the gate) for the Avelo Airlines New Haven to St. Louis inaugural route?
After all, it’s a showdown between a pizza titan (New Haven), and whatever that thing called Imo’s Pizza is.
Check-In
Right before check-in, I wanted to see if Tweed New Haven Airport (the formal name) had a sign showing off the name. There was nothing remarkable on the terminal façade, so I walked a couple of minutes to the airport entrance:
Done. Now, where was check-in? As my only other visit to HVN was in early 2009, I was entirely unfamiliar with the place. It appears that a new terminal had been built, along with a separate check-in structure for Avelo Airlines.
Just to the left of the terminal doors lies check-in for the airline.
There were a few flights in the morning; besides St. Louis, there was another inaugural one, to Lakeland, Florida (LAL), and two more to Wilmington, NC (ILM), and Fort Lauderdale (FLL). Nevertheless, the queue moved quickly enough.
Since I didn’t choose a seat, the computer automatically assigned me a middle seat. Was that able to be changed? Stay tuned for that one.
Not to mention, the check-in agent surprised me by saying that my backpack was more of a personal item than a carry-on. That one was tough to believe, but the point she wanted to make was that there was no need to have paid for a carry-on. Rare indeed.
Terminal
As you might have noticed in the above photo, if you’ve checked a bag, you drop it off to the left of the terminal entryway. To the right of the checked luggage scan, there’s TSA Precheck, which was noticeably faster than the regular queue.
Or was it? Dicey, because there are only two security conveyor belts. Consequently, your ID might get checked faster, but that’s about it.
As for eats, let’s put it this way — grab some snacks beforehand; in fact, Avelo Airlines recommends that you do so. Airside (post-security), HVN has a small food vendor, G Café Bakery, which serves tea, coffee, pastries, and sandwiches, but that’s it.
Gate
There are a couple of gate areas, and unsurprisingly, not enough seating. It’s not a pleasant airport to fly from; that said, if you get there an hour before your flight, I suppose that would be a good call.
Given that my Avelo Airlines New Haven to St. Louis flight was the inaugural one, balloons abounded. Other than that, it was a ho-hum affair.
But, if I had to give any credit to the gate space, there was a nice wide window of the ramp.
Boarding
Printed on my boarding pass was group number 2. I don’t know how many total groups there were, but the process seemed efficient enough.
As mentioned earlier, I had a middle seat. The gate agent, Naida, kindly helped me change my seat to an aisle. If she’s ever your gate agent, you’re in good hands.
One thing that stood out to me was that Capital One Venture and VentureOne cardholders received priority boarding, as long as it was within their first-year of having signed up. Who’s checking the sign-up year?
As the terminal had no jet bridges, boarding at HVN is via outdoors ramp.
In-Flight
After taking a couple of selfies with the forward section of the cabin (again, it was for the inaugural flight), the flight attendants got on with their safety demonstration.
The cabin is your standard-issue LCC interior, no-frills, and lacking power points, that is, outlets. The following two photos come directly from Avelo Airlines (I forgot to take photos of the cabin).
There was no service, yet according to the Avelo Airlines website, FAs have water bottles to hand out.
Ultimately, the flight went off without a hitch, and landed almost 20 minutes early at its new STL Terminal 1 home. For those of you au fait with STL, they’re going to eventually consolidate operations into one main terminal, with construction taking place over the next number of years. They will start piecemeal, demolishing parts of Terminal 1 while shifting some airlines to underutilized parts of the building. How Kansas City (MCI) of them.
Arrival
As it was the first flight to/from STL, the return back to HVN was deliberately scheduled for a later time for airport/Avelo Airlines staff to have photo ops. The current mayor of St. Louis, Tishaura Jones, also spoke for a few minutes.
Passengers on both flights were welcome to have some cake and water, although I did notice some non-Avelo Airlines folks nabbing a bite. Why not, right? It’s better for getting the word out.
Besides the perishables, swag was limited to a postcard marking the occasion:
Overall, I had a good trip. It left on-time, and landed early. What’s wrong with that?
O.K., to be more helpful, New Haven’s airport was not terribly pleasant. But it’s small, and only serves the few flights of Avelo Airlines LCC. Just be glad that it exists.
Bring something to eat and drink, a pair of headphones, and then you’re set.
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