Airline Says Deportation Flights 'Too Valuable Not to Pursue'

Startup Avelo Airlines, which operates low-fare service from select states, has found a new customer in Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Houston-based Avelo has signed a deal to operate deportation flights out of the country while also transporting migrants to detention centers within the US, the Wall Street Journal reports. Three planes "painted all white with no logos" will fly out of Mesa, Arizona, beginning next month, the outlet reports. Though Avelo says it also flew charter flights for ICE during the Biden administration, the move has angered Avelo's established customers, its employees, even the designer behind its logo and livery, per Fast Company.

More than 34,000 people have signed an online petition pledging not to fly with Avelo unless the airline withdraws from the ICE deal. The union representing Avelo's flight attendants has argued that having passengers shackled and handcuffed would hinder responses to in-flight emergencies, while lawmakers in Connecticut have threatened not to extend a suspension of aviation fuel taxes that helped Avelo expand in the state, per the Journal. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has described the deportation flights as "cruel by design and enormously wasteful of taxpayer resources."

Avelo CEO Andrew Levy acknowledged some may view the decision as "controversial," but said the opportunity "was too valuable not to pursue." It "will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 crew members employed for years to come," he told KPNX. The airline failed to break even last year and suffered more losses in the most recent quarter. In agreeing to join ICE's small network of charter operators, Avelo stands to gain consistent work and good income. A carrier that flew about 60 flights a month for ICE before filing for bankruptcy in 2023 earned about $4 million a week, the Journal reports. (More deportation stories.)