Amid increased leisure travel and snowbirds population, airlines race to add Florida flights out of Bradley Airport

Several airlines are expanding their offerings from Bradley International Airport to destinations across Florida, with at least 40 new weekly flights to the Sunshine State slated for this winter.

The increase in flights is being driven by demand from leisure travelers who make frequent trips to Florida, as well as snowbirds who split their residency between Connecticut and the southern state, experts said.

Of the 3.1 million passengers who departed from Bradley International Airport in 2023, nearly 25% flew to a Florida airport, according to a Hartford Business Journal analysis of federal transportation data.

“Florida has always been a very popular destination out of any airport in the Northeast,” Connecticut Airport Authority Executive Director Kevin Dillon said in a recent interview, citing Florida’s popularity as a leisure destination.

Avelo Airlines in July announced it would be expanding its regional base to Bradley International Airport, adding seven nonstop, twice-a-week flights — including to Florida airports in Daytona Beach and Orlando/Lakeland — beginning in November.

Just a day later, JetBlue announced it’s ramping up its daily flight schedule to Florida this fall, adding 35 weekly flights to five destinations across the state, including Orlando, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale. That will result in a 30% increase in seats for JetBlue flights to Florida this winter compared to last year, the airline said.

Not to be outdone by its peers, ultra-low-cost carrier Breeze Airways earlier this month announced it will launch a twice-weekly route to Daytona Beach International Airport in February 2025. Breeze also announced that its expanding to Tweed-New Haven Airport, with nonstop service that will begin in December to Florida destinations including Fort Myers, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Vero Beach.

In addition to Florida’s reputation as a leisure destination and launching spot for cruise vacations, Dillon said remote work has played a part in the growing popularity of the Connecticut-to-Sunshine State connection.

“I think during the pandemic, what we started to see with remote working is that a lot of people who have second homes down in Florida have been taking frequent trips back and forth and working remotely in Florida as well, even though they may be working for a Connecticut-based employer,” Dillon said. “So, I think all of those things have really added up to make Florida an even stronger market than it was pre-pandemic.”

Data backs up those claims. In 2019, 26.9% of passengers who flew out of Bradley traveled to a Florida airport. That increased to 33.3% and 30.3% during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, respectively, federal transportation data shows.

Florida has also become a popular destination for Connecticut residents seeking warmer winter climates or lower taxes.

Over a 10-year period ending in 2022, and excluding the pandemic year of 2020, Connecticut lost a net 71,044 residents to Florida, according to an HBJ analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

During that time period, 132,988 former Connecticut residents moved to Florida, while 62,210 former Sunshine State residents relocated here.

Some of those migrating residents still maintain a home or business in Connecticut, where they visit for part of the year.

Bradley Airport had 86 weekly flights to Florida as of Aug. 1, to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Sarasota, Tampa, Vero Beach and West Palm Beach.

When Avelo begins its Daytona Beach service in November, Bradley will have 10 nonstop Florida routes from airline companies, including American, Breeze, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest and Spirit.

Bradley expansions

Avelo Airlines, an ultra-low-cost carrier founded in 2021, has an existing regional operations base at Tweed-New Haven Airport, which is the company’s largest and employs more than 250 people. The Bradley expansion will create 80 new jobs, and Avelo will station two of its airplanes at the Windsor Locks airport.

“We want to keep investing in Connecticut because of how it’s performed for us, and because of the response that we’ve gotten from customers,” said Trevor Yealy, head of commercial and network planning at Avelo Airlines.

Yealy said the company’s Daytona Beach route is one of its most popular destinations out of Tweed, so it was a natural inclusion in the Bradley expansion.

However, Avelo is attracted to more than just flights to the Sunshine State, Yealy said. The Bradley expansion will also allow Avelo to launch its first international flights, with service to Cancun, Mexico, and Montego Bay, Jamaica, beginning in November.

“Hartford offers something that we, at this point in time, cannot do out of New Haven — and that’s to offer international service,” Yealy said.

Florida market and beyond

Daytona Beach International Airport, where Avelo and JetBlue will soon be offering nonstop service out of Bradley, serves more than 700,000 passengers a year. It’s in a vacation hub that is home to the Daytona International Speedway and “the world’s most famous beach,” according to Joanne Magley, the airport’s director of marketing and customer experience.

“We have 47 miles of beach here in the Volusia County and the Daytona Beach area,” Magley said. “We have pristine beaches with something for everybody.”

Magley said Avelo’s Daytona Beach route from New Haven has been extremely popular, and Connecticut passengers are one of the top ridership segments for the airport.

“Before Avelo, they were just coming in on either Delta or American through a connection flight, but now there’s this other option for people who are already coming here to get a direct flight from Connecticut,” Magley said.

Connecticut-to-Florida flights are mainly for tourism purposes, Magley said, with somewhere between 60% to 70% for leisure travel, and the rest for family visits, business, or those who live in both locations.

Dillon, from the CAA, said increased cruise line activity has also boosted Florida’s attraction as a vacation destination.

“Florida’s overall cruise activity has picked up in recent years, particularly cruise ports in Tampa, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, which has added quite a bit of additional traffic down to Florida,” Dillon said.

Overall, Bradley has increased its nonstop destinations by almost 60% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to the Connecticut Airport Authority. It now has direct flights to 47 cities.

And looking beyond just the Florida market, Dillon said there is similar potential for Bradley to add nonstop service to airports in the southwestern United States, including Arizona and Nevada. Those states share traits with Florida, including having residents who also have homes in Connecticut, he said. Seattle is another nonstop destination Dillon said he’d like to see at Bradley.

“This is a very, very strong and healthy market, it’s just a matter of convincing the airlines to make the investment of putting an aircraft on a route out of Bradley,” Dillon said.