Former Allegiant Airlines Air President and later United Airlines CFO Andrew Levy has filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to patent his new Houston Air Holdings airline AVELO AIRLINES. The registration of AVELO AIRLINES includes not only the name and company logo, which looks like three overlapping wishbones but also computer programs and software.

In the USPTO filing, the Delaware-registered airline asks to trademark the following AVELO AIRLINES products:

• Transportation services, namely, transportation of persons by air
• Downloadable computer application software for mobile devices and handheld computers in the field of airline transportation, namely, software for airline passenger transportation
• Software for ticketing airline passengers, airline flight seating assignments, and checking reservations, flight schedules, and flight status
• Software for tracking and redeeming loyalty program awards for airline passengers

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What is AVELO AIRLINES' business plan?

While we still know very little of what AVELO AIRLINES plans to do, the idea back in 2019 was to create a new American low-cost carrier. The plan was to operate as follows:

• Regularly scheduled flights in the United States
• Extremely low fares
• Highly reliable
• Operate using 189 seat Boeing 737-800s
• The airline would serve American cities that are currently underserved with point-to point-flights

It sounds like Ryanair

I don't know about you, but this sounds an awful lot like a Ryanair business model for the United States. Here in Europe, we are all familiar with how Ryanair operates, and while we might complain, we can't resist the airline's incredibly low fares.

Because of the inexpensive tickets, it is often worth not using the most convenient airport but one that might mean a 45 minute to an hour's drive. A good example of this would be Vienna Airport (VIE) and Bratislava Airport (BTS): both airports are 45 minutes apart, but it was often cheaper to fly from the Slovak capital than Vienna. For this reason, it often seemed as though BTS was actually an Austrian airport as all you heard were people speaking German.

Will it work?

While you might think who in their right mind would want to start an airline during a global pandemic that has brought most carriers to their knees? That could be exactly why now would be an excellent time to start an airline. There is a ready pool of knowledgeable and trained former airline employees, including flight attendants and pilots, available, plus a surplus of aircraft that can probably be picked up for a bargain price.

According to One Mile At A Time, the people behind the new airline raised $125 million in 2020. They have also acquired XTRA Airways’ Part 121 commercial airline certification and are hiring staff under that brand for operational roles.

Given the fact that AVELO AIRLINES is well funded and plans to offer no-frills flights at very low fares, all you have to do is look at Ryanair's' operations, and you can see how it will work. Southwest Airlines' business model was the inspiration for Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary who then took budget flying to the next level. Hopefully, Andrew Levy has the same idea and can make AVELO AIRLINES as successful as Ryanair.

What do you think about starting a new airline right now, and do you think a budget carrier serving secondary markets can work in the USA? Please tell us what you think in the comments.