Stretching out: Avelo Airlines is latest carrier to add extra legroom seats

Get ready to stretch out a little onboard Avelo Airlines.

The Houston-based discounter will add more-spacious seating options, Stretch and Stretch+, to its Boeing 737s beginning Sept. 3, Avelo said Tuesday. The new offerings will have between 32 inches and 36 inches of pitch compared to 29 inches in its standard economy seats. And Stretch+ also includes an unoccupied middle seat.

Stretch and Stretch+ seats are available for an extra fee during the booking process, Avelo said.

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“Stretch and Stretch+ reflects our commitment to giving travelers more choice and comfort,” Brian Davis, chief commercial officer of Avelo, said in a statement. “We know comfort matters and this new option offers a better experience for those who want it, without changing the value our customers expect from us.”

Avelo is the latest budget airline to add more spacious onboard seating options. Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Southwest Airlines are in the process of adding, or have added, extra-legroom and other onboard offerings to travelers willing to pay for more space. Even JetBlue Airways is adding domestic first class.

Premium leisure travel, or vacationers who are willing to pay for a more premium travel experience, has boomed since the coronavirus pandemic. And, as airline after airline spoke of a slowdown in U.S. leisure travel during the first quarter of 2025, they also spoke to the strength of premium travel.

Avelo’s new seating options come amid controversy for the airline. In April, Avelo confirmed that it would dedicate three 737s to the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Control and Enforcement agency’s charter program flying deportees out of the U.S. That landed Avelo in the center of a maelstrom and prompted some calls to boycott the airline.

The airline has not said whether the so-called “ICE Air” flights have affected demand for its commercial passenger business.

But things are changing at Avelo. In March, the airline ended its “hassle-free travel” promise with the addition of change and cancellation fees. That move came at the same time as Avelo confirmed it is developing a new loyalty program and co-branded credit card.

Loyalty programs and associated credit cards are often big money-makers for airlines.

And Avelo continues to expand as well.

The carrier opened new bases at Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (USA) and Wilmington International Airport (ILM) in North Carolina in March and April, respectively. And it plans to add three new airports — New York’s Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) near Grand Rapids, and Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS) in Nassau, Bahamas — to its map in May and June.

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