Cranky on the Web: Avelo’s New City, The Air Show on IATA

Jun 20, 2026

More Reading on This Topic: Avelo, CLE – Cleveland, Cranky on the Web, The Air Show

A new airline is coming to Cleveland. Here’s what travelers should know – Cleveland.com

Imagine you aren’t familiar with Avelo, but they come to your town for the first time. How do you describe the airline? I spoke with the Cleveland paper to explain that this is truly basic air transportation. And though nobody is going to turn them away, this isn’t about finding travelers in Cleveland. It’s about bringing passengers in Avelo’s bases to The Land.

I know it’s been spotty this month with travel schedules, but we are back into a regular cadence after this week. (We are taking July 4th week off however.) This week, Brian and Jon regale me with their stories from the IATA annual general meeting. There was talk about who is on the list for a couple of CEO jobs, why sprinting on the beach matters, and what makes Jon smile more than anything. It’s an action-packed half hour.

ALSO, one thing I don’t love about podcasting is that it’s a one way medium. So, if you want to join the discussion, we’re taking it to LinkedIn. Follow our page and then participate every time we post a new episode.

The Air Show

A podcast about the business of the sky

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Brett

8 responses to “Cranky on the Web: Avelo’s New City, The Air Show on IATA”

Outer Space Guy

Jun 20, 2026 at 6:59 am

An interesting topic for your podcast (or for the blog) might be something along the lines of: why can’t an airline be successful doing either a premium or at least elevated experience. At a place I have worked, we often say that a company can either be the cheapest option, or they can be the best option. Never try to live in the middle. And so the internal ethic becomes “best in class”. That company is never the cheapest option, and customers *love* them (and profits and etc follow).

It seems like most airlines try to make their basic experience so horrible that you will look for ways to buy your way out of it (credit cards, buyup offers, etc). What about an airline’s motto being happy to leave the cheapest passengers for someone else, being happy making money but not Vegas-style monetizing everything they can think up; something perhaps like a resurrected Midwest Express, or (slightly less “common-man luxury”) an airline keeping the seat pitch as-is but removing all middle seats from coach (those middle seats cannot be worth much, right?). You see some of this with 30 seat jets (on smaller airlines) that used to fly as 40 or 50 seater jets.

Put more simply: It seems like Midwest Express lasted for a long time. Why can’t that model (or something kinda like it) work today? Why can’t I have an airline that I can rave about? Why won’t anyone dare to claim that “best in class” ethos for every passenger, knowing that they will still make money even if some passengers will go elsewhere?

Reply
1. Patrick
  
  Jun 20, 2026 at 8:26 am
  
  Embraer planes would be perfect for this. Seats are wider than a 737 and there are no middle seats to be removed. Just take out a row or two to give extra seat pitch.
  
  Reply
  1. Bill from DC
    
    Jun 20, 2026 at 1:27 pm
    
    They have an order for 50 E2s. Whether that order will ever be fulfilled is a different story.
    
    Reply
  2. 1990
    
    Jun 22, 2026 at 4:46 am
    
    Agreed. E2s are awesome. Airlines like Porter and Airlink (in southern Africa) have used mostly Embraer (for their jet aircraft) with a high quality of service. Efficient, decent range. Best thing… no middle seats!
    
    Reply
2. bobsmith99
  
  Jun 20, 2026 at 4:05 pm
  
  The airline business is so cutthroat nowadays. Midwest Express was great back in the day- with the fresh baked chocolate cookies, more legroom, etc. The economics don’t work now. Any airline that wanted to resurrect a similar model today would have to charge such a premium to be financially viable that the demand wouldn’t likely be there- especially in markets like CLE, MKE, IND, etc. A bygone era- sadly.
  
  Reply
3. Brett
  
  Jun 21, 2026 at 8:34 pm
  
  Outer Space Guy – Midwest Express did work for years, but then it didn’t. It was a small niche airline that eventually found its niche didn’t work anymore. But broader scale, it has never worked. Look at American which tried More Room Throughout Coach. It found it couldn’t charge more than other airlines but that made its costs higher. Arguably, airlines have tried to go upscale in more different ways recently. United and Delta tend to offer a better experience than others. Same for JetBlue. But this is a different approach than just eliminating a basic coach product. It is an interesting discussion though. I’ll keep it in mind for a future episode.
  
  Reply
4. Bobby
  
  Jun 22, 2026 at 7:24 am
  
  The marginal cost of upgauging is relatively low.
  
  Therefore, it makes more sense to offer many price points on one plane instead of a few different planes each with its own price point.
  
  Reply
John G

Jun 20, 2026 at 11:56 am

Whole lot of folks have tried it. None have worked.

Everyone complains about air travel, but when given the choice few are willing to spend a few extra bucks on comfort. Especially in coach.

Couple of years ago I flew somewhere on allegiant. I paid for the more room row.

I was the only one.

The entire back was completely full.

No wanted to pay an extra $39 to get more room.

Reply