- Budget airline Avelo will start deportation flights through an ICE contract starting in May as a last-ditch effort to increase revenue. This is “unusual,” experts say, considering it’s typically smaller charter companies that offer such flights. The company has already gotten backlash for its decision to move into deportation flights.
Smaller budget airlines are struggling to keep up with companies like Delta and United and have turned to targeting premium customers by offering more legroom, priority boarding, and checked bags. But one beleaguered airline has taken a different approach to boost its business.
Avelo Airlines, a Houston-based low-cost airline that flies to locations including Connecticut, California, and Florida, will start offering deportation flights through a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Avelo only started flying in 2021, and like other low-cost airlines, it needs to figure out ways to make more money. The airline is privately owned, so it doesn’t post quarterly results, but it didn’t turn a profit until late 2023.
“I realize some may view the decision to fly for [Homeland Security] as controversial,” Avelo CEO Andrew Levy told employees in a message obtained by The Wall Street Journal. After extensive deliberations, he said, “we concluded this new opportunity was too valuable not to pursue, as it will help us stabilize our finances and allow us to continue our journey.”
Many view President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration controversial. In late March, he announced the administration would strip more than half a million migrants living in the U.S. of their legal status, including college students.
Last month, the administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador, claiming it was removing violent gang members from the country. Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection is quietly revoking two-year permits for people who used an online appointment app at U.S. border crossings in Mexico. That program brought in more than 900,000 to the U.S. since January 2023.
Starting May 12, Avelo will use three planes flying out of Mesa, Ariz., as deportation flights out of the country and to carry migrants to U.S. detention centers. The planes will be unmarked: painted white with no logos, according to WSJ.
“We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,” Levy told Fortune in a statement. “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 crew members employed for years to come.”
The airline will open a base at Mesa Gateway Airport and hire for pilots, flight attendants, and aircraft technicians immediately, an Avelo spokesperson told Fortune. Current employees will also have the option to transfer to the new airport base in Mesa.
“We also flew these charters under the Biden administration,” the Avelo spokesperson said. “Regardless of the administration or party affiliation, as a U.S. flag carrier when our country calls and requests assistance, our practice is to say yes. We follow all protocols from DHS and FAA, honoring our core value of ‘Safety Always.’”
What ICE deportation flights are like
Tom Cartwright, a flight-data analyst for the advocacy group Witness at the Border, told the AP he isn’t aware of any other commercial airlines that have provided such flights for ICE, and called the airline’s choice to do so “unusual.”
ICE Air, the transport wing of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, has primarily used charter operations to carry out deportations. One such company is Global Crossing Airlines Group, or GlobalX, which historically flew for college sports teams and musicians. Cartwright told WSJ GlobalX operates more than 70% of ICE’s flights.
In an exposé by ProPublica, several GlobalX workers detailed how different—and disturbing—deportation flights were compared to normal charter flights. One recounted a troubling experience in which a little girl had trouble breathing and spiked a 102-degree fever, and how she ignored instructions to not make eye contact with or speak to the migrants on the flight to take care of the girl. Workers also said passengers are restrained using chains, and often the bathrooms and air conditioning don’t work during the flight.
“They never taught us anything regarding the immigration flights,” one employee told ProPublica. “They didn’t tell us these people were going to be shackled, wrists to f—ing ankles.”
The company’s choice to offer deportation flights outraged many employees.
“WHERE IS THE COMPANY GOING?” one employee sent in an email to the entire company seen by ProPublica. “YOU SIGNED A 5 YEAR CONTRACT WITH ICE? … WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS BECOMING A PRESTIGE CHARTER AIRLINE?”
GlobalX didn’t immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
There’s already been public backlash on Avelo’s choice to start deportation flights from Justin Elicker, mayor of New Haven, Conn., where the airline operates.
“Avelo Airlines’ decision to charter deportation flights from Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona is deeply disappointing and disturbing,” Elicker said in a statement. “For a company that champions themselves as ‘New Haven’s hometown airline,’ this business decision in antithetical to New Haven’s values.”
“Travel should be about bringing people together, not tearing families apart,” Elicker added.
