Budget carrier Avelo Airlines has just signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to handle deportation flights for the U.S. Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE).
It sounds like Avelo needed this contract to keep the airline afloat — according to the CEO, Andrew Levy, the the airline “concluded this new opportunity was too valuable not to pursue… [and] it will help us stabilize our finances and allow us to continue our journey.”
On Saturday, there are planned protests at the airports served by Avelo and over 34,000 people have signed a pledge to boycott the airline.
While I’m not surprised that Avelo is struggling in the current environment, this sounds like a decision from an airline that had two choices: either go out of business or partner with the U.S. government for these very controversial flights. My guess is that within the next year, we’ll hear that Avelo will cease being in the business of selling commercial flights and will soon function solely as a government contractor.
To that point, immigration watchdog Tom Cartwright stated, “I have never seen a retail airline that sells to consumers being used in this way…. Typically, charter companies that don’t fly retail-type flights. They are not selling tickets directly to consumers.”
Overall, I think we’re seeing the beginning of the end of Avelo Airlines as a commercial flight company.
