Avelo Airlines to stop deportation flights after months of backlash
- Avelo, a budget carrier, began operating deportation charters in 2025 under a subcontract with CSI Aviation, drawing swift criticism.
- This move placed the airline at the center of political controversy, with advocates accusing them of profiting from deportations
The Houston-based airline said in a statement it will focus on commercial air. It will close its base at Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona on Jan. 27.
Airline to fly deportation flights out of Mesa Gateway Airport
Avelo Airlines announced that they will have 3 airplanes stationed in Mesa
Homeland Security will have to find an alternative to fill the flights left by the carrier, which operated three Boeing 737-800s and provided a full cadre of staff.
“ICE never contracted directly with Avelo Airlines," said a statement provided by Homeland Security. “ICE will continue to utilize its contracted service provider, which works with multiple airlines to support the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens.”
- Last April, the carrier announced that it had signed a long-term contract with CSI Aviation. On May 12, it started transporting detained immigrants from Mesa, the strategic center of ICE Air Operations, about 20 miles east of Phoenix. At the time, Avelo CEO Andrew Levy said the company entered into the agreement for financial reasons. According to public records, ICE awarded CSI Aviation a contract in March that is now valued at more than $560 million.
“We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,” Levy said in a statement last year. “After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come.”
Critics of the arrangement celebrated Avelo’s decision to cease deportation flights.
Andrew Willis Garcés, a senior strategist with Siembra NC, a grassroots advocacy organization, called the decision “a victory for the thousands of people who have been protesting the airline for most of the last year, and all of their bases all over the country.”
He said the Coalition to Stop Avelo has drawn about 100 organizations and thousands of demonstrators who showed up at dozens of airports with handmade signs and enlarged photos of immigrants. The groups also spearheaded boycotts and pressed legislators to stand up to Avelo.
- Last summer, Justin Elicker, the mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, Avelo’s largest hub, barred city employees from using taxpayer dollars to book flights on the airline.
- In New York, state Sen. Patricia Fahy (D) sponsored the State Airport Facilities Enforcing Accountability in Immigration Removals (SAFE AIR) Act, which prohibits public entities from contracting with airlines that transport people detained by ICE without “being afforded due process rights.”
- The bill also bans certain tax exemptions on fuel sold to airlines that engage in such practices.
- Last year, it pulled out of the West Coast, ending service in California, Oregon, Washington state and Nevada, which some travel industry analysts say may be a bigger obstacle to success than the airline’s brush with ICE flights.
“Frankly, Avelo’s decision to drop most of its flying in the Western U.S., along with other market and route cuts, will have a more significant impact on the airline’s commercial operations and business results than ending its ICE charters,” said Henry H. Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group.
Mark Vandegrift, president and CEO of Innis Maggiore, said Avelo has been stumbling since its debut as an ultra-low-fare carrier. Instead of standing out by elevating affordability, a tactic embraced by Breeze Airways, it modeled itself after such troubled carriers as Spirit and Frontier, which have struggled with bankruptcy and failed mergers.
“If you’re going to be low cost, you have to do it with excellence,” Vandergrift said.
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