Lakelanders are joining the call for Avelo Airlines to stop carrying out deportation flights for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A local group called Defund Obligarchy Blessed by Liberty has organized a rally at 5 p.m. May 31 at Lakeside Village, 1479 Town Center Drive, to join the national Stop Avelo protests happening in about 26 cities this weekend. Organizers said they have at least 50 people who pledged to gather in front of the Starbucks and Harden/Town Center Drive bus stop at Lakeside Village.
“Avelo is a financially struggling company, poorly managed, poorly financed and by their own admission is taking the ICE contract in order to maintain their bottom line and to profit,” said Matthew Boulay, a spokesman for the Stop Avelo campaign, in a May 28 news conference. “It’s profit over people. It’s blood money. It’s shameful.”
Avelo’s contract with ICE
The ultra-low-cost carrier signed a deal with ICE in April to conduct deportation flights under a charter agreement. The flights have operated since May 12 using three Boeing 737-800 aircraft based at the Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona.
Protests started shortly afterward in New Haven, Connecticut, Avelo’s main base of operations. The May 31 protests mark the first attempt at a coordinated national day of protest.
Besides Lakeland, the Stop Avelo campaign lists protests in three other Florida cities: Palm Beach, Fort Myers and Sarasota.
Other locations listed on the organization’s website are:
- Albany, New York
- Arcata, California
- Burbank, California
- Chicago
- Detroit
- Eugene, Oregon
- Houston
- Kalispell, Montana
- Las Vegas
- Manchester, New Hampshire
- McLean, Virginia
- Medford, Oregon
- Mesa, Arizona
- New Haven, Connecticut
- Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina
- Rochester, New York
- Salem, Oregon
- Santa Clarita, California
- Sonoma, California
- Traverse City, Michigan
- Wilmington, Delaware
- Wilmington, North Carolina
The aim of the protest is to educate the public, call for a boycott of Avelo and pressure elected officials to review, suspend and possibly terminate any subsidies or contracts with Avelo.
Targeting Avelo’s subsidies and tax breaks
Avelo began offering commercial passenger service out of municipal-owned Lakeland Linder International Airport in June 2024, as the city’s first true commercial airline.
“Every state and every city from which Avelo operates has subsidies or tax exemptions. Many state and city legislators could be doing something. Not many have spoken up,” Boulay said.
Under its contract with the city, Avelo has a incentive program in which typical operating fees the airline would pay the airport — terminal use, landing fees, fuel flowage fees — are waived, in part or full, depending on its level of operations.
Lakeland officials also pledged to provide $30,000 a year for localized marketing to potential passengers in Polk County.
So far, New York State Rep. Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, presented legislation in her state to restrict Avelo and any other public airline carriers from cooperating with ICE unless valid warrants are presented, with individuals being provided access to legal counsel and granted immigration hearings.
The Stop Avelo movement, along with Defund Obligarchy Blessed by Liberty, are pressing other elected officials to take similar action.