{"id":60798,"date":"2026-01-08T18:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=60798"},"modified":"2026-01-08T20:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T01:24:35","slug":"avelo-airlines-to-stop-deportation-flights-for-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/01\/08\/avelo-airlines-to-stop-deportation-flights-for-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Avelo Airlines to stop deportation flights for ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Avelo Airlines, a low-cost carrier operating in dozens of markets across the U.S., will be closing its base in Mesa, Arizona, and concluding \u201call participation\u201d in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) charter program that deported illegal immigrants from the U.S., according to the airline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Avelo\u2019s decision comes after months of pushback from criticism over the carrier\u2019s participation in the DHS program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAvelo will close the base at AZA on January 27 and will conclude all participation in the DHS charter program. The program provided short-term benefits but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs,\u201d a spokesperson for Avelo wrote in a statement shared with Nexstar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avelo\u2019s statement did not say whether criticism over its DHS charter flights played a factor in the decision to discontinue participation. But in an email announcing the decision to Avelo employees on Tuesday, CEO Andrew Levy acknowledged that its participation \u201cplaced us in the center of a political controversy,\u201d CNBC reported. Avelo\u2019s spokesperson confirmed the veracity of the email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the Avelo statement shared with Nexstar claimed the DHS program had no impact on passenger volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did not see an impact regarding Customers choosing to fly,\u201d according to the statement. \u201cIn 2025, Avelo carried a record 2.6 million Customers on scheduled commercial service, 11% higher than in 2024, with minimal seat growth. Our load factor also increased from 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airline had originally announced in April that it would assist the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to deport immigrants by signing a long-term charter agreement to fly for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The move prompted protestors to rally outside over a dozen airports where Avelo operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to closing its Mesa base, Avelo announced this week that the airport is closing bases in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avelo currently has operating bases in New Haven, Connecticut; Wilmington, Delaware; Concord, North Carolina, and Lakeland, Florida. Another is planned for McKinney, Texas, in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avelo Airlines, a low-cost carrier operating in dozens of markets across the U.S., will be closing its base in Mesa, Arizona, and concluding \u201call participation\u201d in a Department of Homeland… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyM1wvMTJcL0F2ZWxvLUFpcmxpbmVzLmpwZz9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzQ4MCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkF2ZWxvIEFpcmxpbmVzIHRvIHN0b3AgZGVwb3J0YXRpb24gZmxpZ2h0cyBmb3IgSUNFIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.v6pB564p7ihaLMOdIZhUvQot1NdK_QN_yWU3fjlb0WcMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":40238,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Avelo-Airlines.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[13136],"class_list":["post-60798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-avelo-airlines-to-stop-deportation-flights-for-ice"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60800,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60798\/revisions\/60800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}