-This is the big pitch seat.
As we get farther into the cabin,
we start to take away a little bit of space.
So, put a laptop on here -- -Andrew Levy is doing something
nobody else in the US has done in 14 years --
he's starting an airline.
And he's doing it during a pandemic.
-I'm definitely not crazy.
-Now may actually be a good time to start an airline.
Some things have gotten easier,
from finding planes to hiring people.
And then there's this.
-Americans travel.
We travel. And we have --
our lives are spread all across the country.
We rely on air transportation,
and it's just kind of part of our DNA.
-But the history of airline startups leans toward failure.
Anyone remember Pride Air, Legend, Kiwi, or Skybus?
Since the US airline industry was deregulated in 1978,
almost 60 carriers have come and gone.
-I'm overstating this slightly, but every idiot in the world
thinks that they can run an airline.
-Brian Sumers has covered airlines for years.
He is editor-at-large at Skift, which follows travel trends.
-The problem is that the airline industry
is extremely specialized
and you have to know what you're doing.
-Avelo says they're different than startups from the past,
with an experienced management team,
$125 million from investors,
and routes with no competition --
Burbank to Ogden, Utah,
and to Mesa, Arizona, outside Phoenix.
Eventually, Avelo will fly nationwide,
with more bases like Burbank coming.
-It's definitely a point-to-point network.
There are self-contained little --
almost little self-contained airlines.
Airplanes go out and back, our and back.
-Soon, the US will have six of these no-frills,
ultra low-cost airlines
going after leisure travelers who shop by price.
The low fare gets you a seat,
but you'll pay more for everything else.
Another startup, Breeze Airways from the founder of JetBlue,
is launching from the East Coast.
-More competition means lower fares.
This is going to be a good thing for the US consumer.
-The pandemic crushed the airline industry.
Almost overnight, people stopped flying, airports emptied.
But now passenger traffic is rising.
Airports are getting crowded again.
Just look at this trend line from TSA screening counts
coming out of the pandemic.
Avelo is counting on passengers ready to leave home.
Passengers like Sahara Powell, who works at the Burbank Airport
and is already booked on Avelo, flying to Bozeman, Montana,
and going to Yellowstone National Park
with her boyfriend -- $200 round-trip for two people.
-It's a really great price, and especially
'cause we haven't traveled for so long,
we're definitely looking forward to getting back out there
and visiting some places that are on our bucket list.
-That journey will start at the Hollywood Burbank Airport,
where it's like taking a step back in time,
when the walk from your car to the terminal was shorter,
the planes closer.
-This aircraft is totally full. -To get on a flight,
everyone goes outside.
It's an experience you hear, smell.
-There's a lot of cities around the US that have what we believe
to have viable secondary airports,
airports that are less utilized.
-Avelo wants to stay far away from big,
expensive airports like LAX.
31 miles away, it's an airport that sprawls,
with vast spaces across nine terminals.
-I just want to make sure that we have everything we need
to get that up and running.
-Avelo is an airline that was built virtually
in this time of COVID
with weekly sessions among top executives, then everyone.
-Everything has come together.
There's still a lot more work that has to be done.
-This board meeting inside Avelo's hangar in Burbank
was the first time Levy met some of his own team in person.
-And it's all sealed, you know.
-Launching an airline means
taking a first look at the onboard snacks.
It's about paint jobs and practice, with a ground crew
moving around the one plane already at Burbank.
Avelo is starting with just under 200 employees,
nearly all hired during the pandemic.
Jillian Murray is the airline's first captain.
She came from flying the same type of 737
at American Airlines,
but was furloughed there when the virus struck.
-We didn't know if furloughs would last a year or 10 years.
And when you're set on a career path
and that gets stripped from you due to a global pandemic,
it's really difficult to figure out what you're going to do.
This is what I've had my heart set on.
-Oh, hi! -Hi!
-A bit later, it's graduation day
for the first 35 flight attendants
after finishing training.
This group of four are working the first flight.
-I took an early out from my former airline,
one of the majors.
And I didn't know if I would ever do this again,
but I missed it so much, I wanted back in.
-I never had any experience being a flight attendant,
so I was like, okay, well, they're going to be comfortable
with me because we're both new to everything.
-Now the new airline has to fly passengers for the first time.
The inaugural flight, Avelo 101 from Burbank to Santa Rosa --
wine country, north of San Francisco.
-Especially 'cause it's a low cost,
the flights are hella cheap.
-$19 cheap -- the teaser fare.
-Thanks for coming on board. -Trying to get people on planes.
-I thought, you know, it was, like, a foreign airline,
but when I saw it was starting flights out of Burbank,
I'm like, "Dad, we got to hop
on the computer, we got to book this,"
and we got the few of the last seats.
-Alright, see y'all later on today.
-The hard part is still to come.
We got to carry customers each and every day
and do it reliably, on-time, take care of our customers,
and make a couple bucks so we can keep doing this.
-Avelo 101, contact SoCal Departure.
Have a good flight. Welcome to Burbank.