The aviation industry has seen the arrival of new airlines such as PLAY, Breeze, Avelo, and more. All of these airlines are not large nor do they provide international service…I think. According to the Wall Street Journal, 90 airlines have been said to launch in 2021. It’s interesting to see this because the pandemic has hit many other carriers hard. Usually, many would see this as a bad time for airlines to start. The pandemic has taken a toll on the industry, yet new airlines find a way to launch. Will they survive?What are their chances? I made a survey as I want to see opinions. This is for fun, don’t turn into long discussion please.
Do you think these new airlines will manage?
Yes
No
0voters
Based on your own opinion, which airline has the most promising future?
Breeze
Avelo
PLAY
Aha!
0voters
Do you think these new airlines will be able to compete?
Yes
No
Not sure
0voters
Do you think these airlines will expand further?
Yes
No
0voters
Will these airlines come to your local airport? (Aka do you want them to come?)
I hope so
I hope not
I don’t care
0voters
Bonus: do you like these new airline names?
Yes
No
0voters
I haven’t done a survey before. This is my first time, so it may not be very good…
Avelo seems like it won’t last a few more years or so, their route network is like Allegiant, but even more on a budget.
Breeze may succeed on the other hand as they have some great new aircraft coming, Tampa is growing in demand so it gives them a great advantage. I don’t see them ever going to use long haul aircraft, maybe sort of like a JetBlue type airline.
Now for “Aha!”
Aha! is one that I see less of than any of these, their few embraer jets won’t help them. The airlines that already fly to RNO have a great advantage still (Southwest, American, Alaska) as they already have their reputations. If Aha! possibly expands to bigger airports, they have a slight chance of lasting a few years.
Play is one that I couldn’t tell about, I’m not sure how their demand is but being the only other carrier for Iceland is a good advantage. Icelandair wins this though in my opinion as like said above, they have a great reputation already.
Avelo will do fine. They’ve found a sweet spot in New Haven and Las Vegas. If Burbank doesn’t do well, they can shift more to those two airports.
Breeze is well-funded, backed by Neeleman, they do know what they’re doing.
PLAY reported a net loss of about US$11 million for the third quarter of 2021. In comparison, Icelandair reported a net profit of US$19 million. A loss is expected for a startup like PLAY, so just $11 million isn’t bad. They’ll be launching U.S. flights next spring so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes.
Aha! on the other hand, who knows what they’re doing. Essentially trying to connect every small to mid-size Western city with Reno.
Isn’t every one of PLAY’s routes technically international?
Many of these airlines gained lots of private investor support, some of which came from very well known individuals in the airline industry. They also received massive amounts of public support. I think (and hope) they’ll manage pretty well…