Avelo Airlines will stop flying deportation charters for the Department of Homeland Security, ending its service for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after less than a year.
Since publicizing its new business arrangement in April, the low-fare carrier faced protests, boycotts and backlash from travelers, flight attendant unions, local politicians and immigration activists.
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.
The ICE transports “provided short-term benefits but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs,” spokeswoman Courtney Goff said in an email.
Goff did not say exactly when the company will cease ICE flights because CSI Aviation, the government contractor that manages them, will determine the timeline.
“We do not control the schedules,” Goff said.
Homeland Security did not reply to questions about Avelo’s exit from deportation operations or how the agency will fill the flights left by the carrier, which operated three Boeing 737-800s and provided a full cadre of staff.
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.
In December, Delaware state Sen. Ray Seigfried (D) introduced a bill similar to New York’s legislation.
“This Act disqualifies commercial airlines from receiving the aviation jet fuel tax exemption for economic development if they transport ICE detainees for deportation without meeting standards regarding presentation of judicial warrants and due process,” Senate Bill 207 states.
In an announcement about the changes, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents Avelo flight attendants, addressed the volatile nature of the aviation industry, which included employees working on flights they “didn’t originally sign up for.” The union shared a note of optimism for the future of Avelo and its flight crew.
“We’re hopeful that with the end of the ICE flying and new financing the future is more stable for Flight Attendants at Avelo,” the union said in the statement.
As part of its restructuring, the airline said it will eliminate four out of 14 routes from Delaware’s Wilmington Airport. It will also shutter bases in Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington, North Carolina, and retire six Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft. The airline will bolster operations in New Haven; Philadelphia/Delaware Valley; Charlotte/Concord, North Carolina; and Central Florida/Lakeland. It plans to open a hub in Dallas/McKinney, Texas, later this year.
Despite Avelo’s controversial year, Goff said the protests and “widespread misinformation” about the airline did not affect the carrier’s popularity or passenger loads.
In 2025, Goff said Avelo flew a record 2.6 million travelers on scheduled commercial flights, 11 percent more than the previous year. Avelo has 22 Boeing aircraft and flies to three dozen destinations, including several in the Caribbean.
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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