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McKinney National Airport to Launch First Commercial Flights Nov. 11 with Avelo Airlines
McKinney National Airport will begin commercial passenger service for the first time on Nov. 11, with budget carrier Avelo Airlines offering flights to 11 destinations from the newly certified terminal.
McKinney National Airport is set to make history next week when it welcomes its first commercial passenger flight, marking a major milestone for the fast-growing Collin County city.
The inaugural commercial departure is scheduled for Nov. 11, bound for Fort Myers, Florida. Budget carrier Avelo Airlines is currently the airport's sole commercial airline, offering service to 11 destinations from McKinney.
"It feels good. It's a milestone," Airport Director Ken Carley said. "There's so many people that have been working behind the scenes for, really, years on this project."
The airport received its Federal Aviation Administration certification in September, and the terminal has since been transformed from an empty space into a passenger-ready facility. The terminal will initially operate with four gates but is already built to accommodate six, and hundreds of acres surrounding the airport remain undeveloped, leaving room for future growth.
McKinney resident Rod Rimmer, who has lived in the city for six years, recently toured the new terminal. "Well, I was very impressed," he said. "Everything seems obviously very new."
For Rimmer, the appeal of the new airport is convenience. He said it takes about 45 minutes to reach Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport from his home, but joked he could almost walk to McKinney National.
However, whether he becomes a regular customer depends on where the flights go. Of Avelo's 11 destinations from McKinney, only two are west of North Texas: Las Vegas and Denver. That creates a challenge for Rimmer when he wants to visit his former home in central California.
"It would be hard because it would actually take two days to fly to our former home in central California," he said. "I'm hoping that we're going to see flights that developed going west as well as to the east."
Carley said airport leaders will monitor demand as commercial service begins. "We want to understand, you know, how the community responds, what the demand is," he said. "We want to obviously work with Avelo and create opportunities where they can add routes."
For now, the focus is getting the first passengers off the ground. "I think it's significant," Carley said. "It's more choices. It's more options for North Texas."