Avelo Airlines has announced that it will no longer fly deportation flights for the U.S. government, citing public backlash. The airline began flying deportees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last year, despite protests from lawmakers in New York and Connecticut.
CEO Andrew Levy announced the pivot in policy in an email to staff, saying the airline had found itself in the middle of the sensitive and controversial debate over immigration.
“We moved a portion of our fleet into a government program which promised more financial stability but placed us in the center of a political controversy,” Levy wrote, according to CNBC.
Levy once said the deportation flights were too valuable to pass up. But in the staff email, he wrote, “The program provided short-term benefits but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs.”
The Houston-based carrier operated three Boeing 737-800 jets for deportation flights.
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Flight attendants’ reaction
The union representing Avelo’s flight attendants reacted positively to management’s changes in policy, suggesting the deportation flights were ones the attendants “didn’t originally sign up for.”
“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 Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said in a statement to its members.
Other changes at Avelo Airlines
Avelo also announced it is closing bases in Mesa, Arizona and in Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington in North Carolina, although flights will still originate from those airports.
The company said it will focus on New Haven, Connecticut; Wilmington, Delaware; Concord, North Carolina; and Lakeland, Florida.
Levy said some jobs will be cut.
“Some transfer opportunities will be available,” he wrote, “but we will need to reduce the number of positions due to our smaller fleet and network.”
Avelo will also be making changes to its flight schedules that will affect customers and their itineraries. Passengers are advised to keep an eye out for emails or text messages from the company.
Effect on deportations
Neither ICE nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, has responded publicly to Avelo’s decision to stop deportation flights.
Last summer, DHS said it was considering buying its own fleet of airliners to deport immigrants. Officials said at the time the agency could double the number of deportees by operating its own planes.
