Phoenix (AP) — A budget airline for small U.S. cities started federal deportation flights from Arizona on Monday, a move that sparked petitions for boycotts online and sharp criticism from unions representing carrier flight attendants.
Avelo Airlines announced in April that it had signed an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to deport from the Mesa Gateway Airport outside Phoenix. It said it will use three Boeing 737-800 aircraft for flights.
The Houston-based airline is one of many that seek to cash in on President Donald Trump’s massive deportation campaign.
Congressional review began last month’s tax bill, which aims to fund, partly because of the evacuation of 1 million immigrants each year and resident 100,000 people in U.S. detention centers. The Republican plan calls for the hiring of more than 10,000 U.S. immigrant and customs law enforcement and investigators.
Details of the AVELO agreement with ICE are not disclosed
Avelo was launched in 2021 as Covid-19 is still raging and billions of taxpayer funds are supporting major airlines. It mainly saves money by buying 737 jets for relatively low prices. It operates by overcrowded and less expensive secondary airports, a flight route overlooked by major airlines. It said it had its first earning quarter at the end of 2023.
Avelo founder and CEO Andrew Levy said in announcing the agreement last month that the airline’s ICE work will help the company expand and protect its efforts.
“We realized it was a sensitive and complex topic,” Levy said.
Avelo did not approve the Associated Press's interview request.
Financial and other details of the Avelo agreement, including destinations for deportation, have not yet surfaced publicly. The Associated Press requested a copy of the agreement from Avelo and ICE, but neither provided the document. The airline said it had no right to release the contract.
Several consumer brands have evaded related to deportation, which is a highly volatile issue that could expel customers. During Trump's first semester, authorities allowed immigrant children to stay in hotels, prompting some hotel chains to say they would not participate.
Unions cite security issues
Many companies that deport outbound operations, such as detention center providers The Geo Group and Core Civic, rely little on consumer brands. Not Avelo's move inspired boycott petitions on Change.org and drew criticism from the airline's alliance of flight attendants, which cites the difficulty of evacuating deportation in emergencies within a federal standard of 90 seconds or less.
“People who have the whole person in handcuffs and restraints can hinder any evacuation, risk injury or death,” the Flight Attendant-CWA Association said in a statement. “This also hinders our ability to deal with medical emergencies, fires on board, decompression, etc. We cannot do work under these conditions.”
In New Haven, Connecticut, Avelo flew out of Tweed New Haven Airport, and Democratic mayor Justin Elickered Avelo's CEO to reconsider. “For a company that advocates 'New Haven's hometown airline', this business decision is contrary to New Haven's values,” Elick said in a statement.
Protests were held outside airports in Arizona and Connecticut on Monday.
In Mesa, more than 30 protesters gathered on a road to the airport and held signs condemning Trump's efforts to deport. In Connecticut, about 150 people gathered outside Tweed New Haven Airport to call on travelers to boycott Avelo.
John Jairo Lugo, co-founder and director of community organizations at Unidad Latina Ención in New Haven, said protesters want to create economic incentives for Avelo to withdraw from its work for the federal government.
“We need to do some economic damage to the company to really convince them that they should be on the side of the people, not the government,” Lugo said.
MESA is one of five hubs for ice deportation operations
Mesa, a Phoenix suburb with about 500,000 people, is one of the five hubs of the Immigration Agency's deportation operations. ICE AIR operated nearly 8,000 flights in a 12-month period to April, according to Border Advocacy Witnesses.
Tom Cartwright said ICE contracted with air broker CSI Aviation, which hired two rental carriers (Globalx and Eastern Air Express) for most flights.
Cartwright said it has been unusual for commercial passenger carriers to conduct deportation flights in recent years.
“It's always been an air broker and then hires airlines, and the carriers aren't regular commercial carriers, or what I call a retail operator, and they're selling their tickets,” Cartwright said. “At least, they've been franchising companies since I've been involved (tracking ICE flights).
Avelo will hold a contract under New Mexico's CSI Aviation, a sub-carrier of Avelo that does not answer questions about how much money Avelo will make under the agreement.
Avelo provides passenger services to more than 50 cities in the United States, as well as in Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Airport spokesman Ryan Smith said Avelo does not provide regular commercial passenger services at Mesa Gateway Airport.
In February 2024, Avelo said it was the first profitable quarter, although no details were provided. In an AP interview two months later, Levy declined to provide the figures, saying the airline was a private company and did not need to provide the information publicly. ___ Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut contributed to the report.
