First commercial flight set to depart from DTX airport in McKinney

Commercial air services launches in Collin County on Wednesday morning, with Avelo Airlines welcoming the first passengers to DTX Airport.

DTX's inaugural flight will take off at 9 a.m., with a Boeing 737 taking passengers to Fort Myers, Florida. There, the plane will turn around, bringing the first arriving passengers to the DTX terminal at 3:22 p.m.

In addition to Fort Myers, Avelo is starting out with flights from DTX to Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Las Vegas. Beginning in December, service will expand to Denver, Atlanta, New Orleans, Nashville, Sarasota-Bradenton and West Palm Beach.

What is Avelo Airlines?

Avelo Airlines launched in April of 2021, focusing largely on leisure travel and flying into less crowded secondary airports. McKinney National Airport will be its fifth main base, joining New Haven, Connecticut (between New York and Boston), Concord, North Carolina (near Charlotte), Wilmington, Delaware (near Philadelphia) and Lakeland, Florida (between Tampa and Orlando). 

Before Wednesday, Avelo only flew one route from North Texas, connecting Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with New Haven twice per week.

The airline is based in Houston but only flies one route from there, also to New Haven.

Avelo drew controversy last year when it started operating deportation flights for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Levy said at the time that Avelo agreed to operate the flights to ensure financial stability. However, the agreement ended in January after it did not "deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs," the company said to CBS News.