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The nation’s largest airlines lost a combined $46 billion last year as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the travel industry to its knees.

During the depths of the slump, airlines laid off or furloughed as many as 82,000 workers, thousands of whom haven’t been rehired, and filled remote desert airports with several hundred parked planes, many of which are still languishing.

Is now really the best time to launch a new airline?

Andrew Levy, a former United Airlines executive, thinks so. He is set to begin operating low-fare Avelo Airlines out of Hollywood Burbank Airport on April 28, starting with three planes and 11 routes.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.