Avelo Enters Deportation Biz

(Updated with comments from Mayor Elicker) The budget airline that has made Tweed its East Coast hub is now working with the Trump administration to run deportation flights out of Arizona.

In a job recruiting post added to its website on April 3, Avelo Airlines announced a new position for a full-time flight attendant, to be based out of Mesa, Arizona.

The posting comes with a disclaimer that the job ​“is for a charter program for the Department of Homeland Security. Flights will be both domestic and international trips to support DHS’s deportation efforts.” 

Asked for comment, Avelo Airlines Founder and CEO Andrew Levy said, ​“Having a portion of our company dedicated to charter flying, without exposure to fluctuating fuel prices or risk from macroeconomic factors, provides us with the stability to grow our core business, which is scheduled passenger travel.”

According to a statement from the airline, Avelo has signed ​“an agreement for a long-term charter program flying for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration Control and Enforcement agency.” 

Avelo will run three Boeing 737 – 800s out of Mesa, Arizona (AZA) beginning on May 12 as part of this program. Avelo will open a new base in Mesa specifically for the operation of these flights. That new Arizona base will operate with ​“Avelo pilots, flight attendants and aircraft technicians, as well as appropriate local leaders.” Current Avelo crewmembers ​“will have the first option to transfer to our new AZA base.” 

Mesa is also where federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Commercial Air Operations Unit (also known as ICE Air) runs their operations. 

In response to news that Avelo is entering the deportation business, the local advocacy crew New Haven Immigrants Coalition launched an online petition to urge New Haveners to boycott the airline for as long as it supports Trump’s deportation regime.

“We demand that AVELO AIR halt plans to carry out deportation flights in cooperation with the Trump Administration,” that petition reads. ​“We pledge to boycott the airline until they stop plans to profit off ICE flights that are tearing families and communities apart and removing some legal residents, such as Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with no recourse for returning to their families.”

The petition also criticize Avelo for using these deportation flights to ​“make up for operating losses at Tweed Airport, thereby funding New Haven’s airport through cruel deportation practices.” The petition calls for the state legislature to not renew a ​“massive tax cut” on Avelo’s fuel tax bill when it expires on June 30.

As of Monday morning, the petition had 91 signatures.

Avelo started flying out of Tweed’s Morris Cove regional airport in November 2021, and now offers more than two dozen direct flights from New Haven. It’s one of two budget commercial carriers currently flying out of Tweed, along with Breeze.

Update: In a comment provided to the Independent Monday morning, Mayor Justin Elicker described Avelo’s decision to charter deportation flights as ​“deeply disappointing and disturbing. For a company that champions themselves as ​‘New Haven’s hometown airline,’ this business decision is antithetical to New Haven’s values.”

Elicker said that he personally called Avelo’s CEO over the weekend ​“to express my strong objection to this business decision and to urge him to reconsider.

“While no one objects to deporting individuals who have committed violent crimes, it is well-documented that the Trump Administration is violating basic due process rights when it comes to our immigrant community, and we need corporations to step up and stand up to the Trump Administration’s unconstitutional, illegal and inhumane actions – not to be complicit with them.”

“Travel should be about bringing people together,” Elicker concluded, ​“not tearing families apart.”