AIRPORT ADVISORY BOARD GETS "RETREAT" AT SPI FOR A JOB WELL DONE

BON VOYAGE! SEE YA!

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

In the wake of a string of successes and heavy lifting, the members of the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport board of directors have scheduled a "retreat" at the Holiday Inn at South Padre Island that will include breakfast and lunch at taxpayer expense at the ritzy hotel this Tuesday.

The board retreat comes three days before Avelo Airlines will halt all operations to Orlando, Fla., August 3. The airline arrived with much fanfare offering direct flights to Las Vegas, Orlando and Los Angeles through the Burbank Airport. Those Burbank flights will also be discontinued August 31. City manager Helen Ramirez and mayor John Cowen posed with Avelo president and an Elvis Presley imitator.

The gaudy announcement was coordinated by Ramirez's-hired Manuel Chacon's propaganda factory, also called the Brownsville Marketing and Communications Department.   

This comes on the heels of another much-heralded press conference with all the bells and whistles where Ramirez and Cowen pulled out all the stops to introduce yet another airline – if it can be called that – that will start service.

The Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport recently announced its newest commercial airline partner, Aerus. The Mexican-based airline will start offering daily, non-stop flight service from Brownsville to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, in September.

And guess what? The prop-driven planes will have a nine-passenger capacity to open South Texas to the "international" market. Those nine passengers hark a new bond between northern Mexico's industrial center and the Brownsville airport, said Cowen. 

“I think having daily flights to Monterrey really strengthens that bond and opens a lot of doors for what we can do as a community,” said Cowen.

According to Avelo, it will halt its operations in Brownsville as part of a "restructuring" that includes a reduction of its flight operations out of Orlando International Airport (MCO).

Avelo stated that the move is impacting several cities connected by their service, including Brownsville’s airport, and as a result, it will halt its services here.

"Avelo has committed to maintain its operations to Orlando through August 3, 2024. It will
also continue its services to Burbank until August 31, 2024," the news release stated.

Avelo inaugurated service from BRO in May of 2023, and as late as April 24, 2024, press releases by the airline and Ramirez lauded the service and celebrated the fact that it had achieved a "milestone" of 100 flights over a year.

Avelo Airlines Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy said, “Flying our first 100 flights between Los Angeles and Brownsville is a significant milestone and a testament to the affordability, convenience and reliability we’ve introduced to the South Texas region. We encourage South Texans to choose Avelo when traveling to the L.A. Basin this summer.”

Ramirez chimed in with a statement that said, “Congratulations to Avelo Airlines and our Brownsville, Texas community for reaching this important milestone where both tourist and business travelers benefit from easy, reliable and affordable non-stop flights to LA, how cool is that!”

Apparently, very cool to the board members. Will this string of "successes" that earned the airport advisory board the "retreat" and free chow at the SPI Holiday Inn be adopted by other boards and commissions serving the city? And if not, why not?