A Budget Carrier Said It Would Start ICE Deportation Flights. Now, It’s Facing Backlash

Avelo Airlines, an ultra-low-cost carrier, said this week it would start carrying out deportation flights for Immigration Control and Enforcement out of Mesa, Arizona. 

The agreement with ICE is unusual for a commercial carrier. Typically, ICE has agreements for deportation flights with charter airlines, most of which are not known to the public. 

Avelo plans to operate these flights out of Mesa Gateway Airport, starting on May 12. Three Boeing 737-800s will be used, and Avelo said it would operate both domestic and international flights for the agency. Job postings for flight attendant, aircraft maintenance and technician roles based in Mesa, Arizona have since been posted online. 

GlobalX, a charter airline that carried out the controversial deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, also operates deportation flights out of Mesa Gateway Airport. 

Avelo CEO Andrew Levy said the contract with ICE would provide the company more stability. Avelo’s business model is a common one for ultra-low-cost carriers, in which it operates out of cities with limited to no commercial air service and connects them to popular leisure destinations, like Florida and Las Vegas. 

“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,” Levy said in a statement. 

The decision was met with swift backlash from customers and local officials, and Levy also acknowledged that the move would be considered controversial. 

“We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,” Levy said.

Avelo said it carried out such charter flights under the Biden administration as well. However, the backlash is more intense following multiple reports of the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants. 

The details of Avelo’s contract with ICE have not been disclosed. 

Backlash From Local Officials

The backlash was particularly apparent in Connecticut, where Avelo operates a base in New Haven.

“Avelo Airlines’ decision to charter deportation flights from Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona is deeply disappointing and disturbing,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said in a statement to the New Haven Register. “For a company that champions themselves as ‘New Haven’s hometown airline,’ this business decision is antithetical to New Haven’s values.”

Connecticut attorney general William Tong sent a letter to Avelo on Tuesday, expressing disappointment in the decision. 

“These flights are cruel by design and enormously wasteful of taxpayer resources, and no business should be complicit,” Tong said in the letter. “If reporting is accurate, Avelo has freely chosen to profit from and facilitate these atrocities. The State of Connecticut has an obligation now to review this business decision and to consider the viability of our choice to support Avelo.” 

The letter also asks Avelo multiple questions about the treatment of passengers on the flights and for a copy of its contract with ICE. 

An Avelo spokesperson said pilots will operate the planes and flight attendants will provide a safety briefing at the beginning of the flight. Flight attendants will also be there in the event of an emergency, the spokesperson added. 

The Department of Homeland Security will handle all other matters and be on board the charter flights. 

Connecticut lawmakers are also proposing a bill that would prohibit companies that wish to contract with state agencies from working with federal immigration authorities, according to the CT Mirror. Avelo was a contentious topic during the legislature’s Judiciary Committee meeting on Tuesday. 

“State taxpayers are helping prop that company up and keep that company operational,” said Connecticut State Representative Steven Stafstrom during the meeting. “But then they turn around and they are then using those same planes that we’re helping to subsidize, to deport individuals out of this country.”

An online petition urging Avelo to end its contract with ICE has nearly 30,000 signatures. 

Behind Avelo’s Decision

It is unclear whether Avelo’s contract with ICE could create greater risk to its commercial business as boycott campaigns take off. 

Avelo cut capacity from Sonoma County, California and stopped service out of Boise, Idaho shortly after the news, but the carrier said in a statement to Skift that it did not cancel service solely due to the ICE contract. 

“We acknowledge the weight of these concerns with Customers,” Avelo said in a statement to Skift. “We have canceled and changed our schedules to accommodate through periods of low travel and removing routes from that network that have low demand and were not profitable. No flights were canceled solely due to the new charter opportunities.”

In the first quarter, before news of its work with ICE, Avelo had cut capacity out of some of its most popular leisure destinations, according to data from Cirium. Capacity was down 47% out of Orlando, nearly 24% out of Las Vegas, and 8% out of Tampa compared to last year. 

However, it appears that part of the reason Avelo decided to carry out deportation flights could be because of its performance in New Haven. 

Levy told employees in an email that Avelo’s performance in New Haven had been weak and that the carrier would have its worst first-quarter results since 2023, according to the Yale Daily News. 

Competition out of New Haven has increased recently, as Breeze Airways added several flights out of the city’s airport last year.