5 reviews
Report No: 2022-604
Dear folks,
Welcome to this short brand new series which would cover my cheapest US domestic ticket ever which I bought for $33 including taxes & fees for a round-trip ticket from Baltimore, MD to New Haven, CT onboard newly born Avelo Airlines. Since this deal fit my schedule and I wanted to explore New Haven, CT it was a perfect opportunity to fly this airline once again after being on the airline's inaugural flight from Burbank to Santa Rosa a year ago.
This report would cover the second and last leg of the series which is the westbound direction of the route from New Haven Tweed Airport to Baltimore Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The routing for this trip would look like this;
Loads for this flight
30-35%
Since I was rushing to catch a train 24 hours before this exact flight was scheduled to depart, I was a bit late to check-in online and get my seat assignment and boarding pass.
Similar to the outbound trip, Avelo asked me to confirm that I agree to wear a mask onboard, however, in the end, masks were not mandatory at all since the Federal Mask Mandate was lifted and Avelo doesn't have their own mask policy.
This time, I was assigned seat 06A by the system which is located in the front of the cabin but not an exit row seat thus this time I was going to have a 29 inch seat pitch.
On the day of the flight, I have checked out from my hotel very early to catch the bus to New Haven Tweed Airport from downtown New Haven. Until December 2022, all public buses at the state of Connecticut are free of charge.
After a 30 minute journey, I was at the neighborhood of the airport and I learnt that I needed to alert the driver when boarding since the airport is a on-request stop for the public bus line. Thus, I had a short 10 minute walk from the stop I got off to the terminal.
After some point, the airport was visible and Avelo aircraft were present. At the time that this report was written, Avelo Airlines was the only commercial carrier operating out of this airport since American Eagle stopped flying to Philadelphia from Tweed Airport.
Today's aircraft N703VL was waiting for me at its stand. This is the same specific aircraft that I flew the previous day to New Haven.
There is an administrative Avelo building and on the left side, it's the main departures terminal.
Here are the Avelo offices in New Haven at a prefabricated building
Walkway to the departures hall
I didn't have anything to do with check-in since I had a mobile boarding pass, but the check-in desks are also located inside this prefabricated building.
Security was a breeze despite two flights were departing around the same time. There was no wait and I was airside within 2 to 3 minutes.
The FIDS screen was frozen that day and didn't show all flights since my flight was also not listed.
Airside HVN is pretty small and has a café
Which indeed their muffins were nice as well as the coffee selections were handcrafted.
Since the screens were not working, there were multiple announcements that our flight was going to depart from gate 3, while the Fort Lauderdale flight departing at the same time was going to depart from gate 2.
The gate area of gate 3 was pretty empty compared to the main waiting hall since there were much more passengers heading to Fort Lauderdale that morning rather than Baltimore.
Boarding started on time with respect of group numbers and since the flight was empty boarding with the last group didn't cause any trouble. By the way, there were two gate agents whereas one of them was a trainee being taught by the senior employee.
Today's journey would be was going to be with N703VL and it would be my second time on this specific airframe.
Fuselage shots
After being welcomed by the crew, I have taken my seat 06A for the flight.
The legroom was OK for me and quite decent for a low-cost carrier.
The overhead panel
Avelo doesn't offer any entertainment including any literature and the seat pocket only has a safety card
The boarding process took very short since the flight was empty with many seats being available, at that time the captain announced that they are waiting for some paperwork and then we would be on our way.
I was lucky to have the entire row to myself.
When everything was all set, it was time to pushback and the safety demonstration was performed by the cabin crew.
The terminal after pushing back
N701VL at a remote stand which would eventually operate XP 301 service to Orlando later during the morning
N707VL would operate the 08:30 service to Fort Lauderdale that morning
Another shot of N701VL
After a short taxi, we were at the runway and we took off on time
The coast
Over the Long Island Sound
Long Island
Some mini islands at the sound
Shortly later we reached our cruising altitude
Since I was thirsty, I asked one of the crew members for a cup of water and was promptly served a bottle.
As a reminder, Avelo doesn't offer any service or buy-on-board on this route.
Over the clouds
A few minutes later, we started our descent
Passing by airfield at Delaware
Cruising over beautiful landscape at Maryland
And a few minutes later, we have landed at Baltimore Thurgood Marshall Airport
The first aircraft that I was able to spot was this PrimeAir freighter jet. Amazon has a huge presence at BWI as a distribution center.
If we look at the passenger jet side, spotting started with Southwest aircraft at Concourse A
Some more WN aircraft
Another Southwest 737-700
United 737-800 getting ready for its flight to Denver as UA 548
Spirit A320 parked at gate D14
N504NK was going to Myrtle Beach, SC that morning
Southwest 737 parked at gate C13
N980UY, which I have flown on before from Los Angeles to Charlotte in March 2022, was getting prepared to fly to Charlotte as AA 609
This Spirit A320neo was heading to Cancun that morning and that flight was delayed by 3 hours.
United 737-800 from a different angle
Finally, gate D22 was visible, which is the gate we would park.
Once the seatbelt signs were turned, the front door was opened and deboarding was quite quick, since there weren't that many passengers onboard.
After saying goodbye to the crew and leaving the aircraft, I found myself inside the terminal.
It was time to follow signs for Ground Transportation
Since I had 50 minutes to my train down to Washington DC, I decided to work at the terminal for a bit on my laptop since I know that there is no connectivity at the BWI Rail Station waiting hall.
About 30 minutes before my train, I went downstairs to the shuttle stop and the boards were showing 6 minutes to the next bus. Despite the bus scheduled to operate every 10 minutes, I waited 25 minutes for the shuttle for an unknown reason and since passengers were waiting for a long time, the bus stopped at every stop longer than usual.
Result: My train had departed and I was late.
At least I was able to get an Amtrak voucher for the full value of my ticket and waited for the commuter train that was going to depart 42 minutes later.
After leaving the BWI Train Station with MARC Train 427 to Washington, DC the journey came to an end.
Thanks for reading this report and I hope you enjoyed it.
I wish to see all of you at another report soon.
An empty flight made the journey more pleasant with Avelo and it was an enjoyable trip with a friendly crew. While, the experience at HVN was good and at a decent experience level, waiting for a shuttle unreasonably long ( which is the control of the airport ) was a bit painful at BWI on a weekday.
Other than that, I would consider flying Avelo on my future trips which I'll take backpacks with me or when they have a significant price advantage compared to other carriers since they are a decent airline with reasonable fares. However, the lack of power, entertainment and service could be bothering on their longer flights.
2 Comments
So glad to read about Avelo again! So sad that the flight was almost empty. I hope that's not a bad sign for the airline's future!
I wouldn't expect to find an airport in a residential area like that! But then again, LSC is also in a residential area, now that I remember. BTW, that road to the airport needs some maintenance!
What a nice little airport, with that small cafeteria and walking across the apron. I wish all airports were like that.
Beautiful sights!
Sorry to read about your missed train!
Thank you very much for sharing. The sights and the spotting were very enjoyable. Let's hope the best for Avelo!
- Before Avelo, this airport only served as a regional airport which mostly has private flights so I could understand that the SMO logic here. By the way, you are right about the roads needing maintenance.
- Indeed, quite, peaceful and not stressful at all. However, when flying a legacy carrier, I would miss a lounge there. :)
- At least the next one was in a reasonable timeframe.
- Indeed, wishing the best for Avelo and hope to fly them again in the future ( didn't fly them since this flight ) and thanks for stopping by.
Login to post a comment.