Budget airline Avelo to fly deportation flights for ICE from Arizona

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Budget carrier Avelo Airlines signed an agreement to fly federal deportation flights from Arizona starting in May, according to the company, whose founder acknowledged the decision may be controversial.

Andrew Levy, also CEO of the Houston-based airline, said Avelo is flying for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Control and Enforcement agency as part of a “long-term charter program” to support the agency's deportation efforts. The company decided the move would help with expansion and protect jobs, he said.

“We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic," Levy said in a statement.

The domestic and international flights will be supported by three Boeing 737-800 planes and based at Mesa Gateway Airport, Avelo said in a statement.

In an online job listing for the Arizona operation, Avelo states that the “flights will be both domestic and international trips to support DHS’s deportation efforts.”

Tom Cartwright, a flight data analyst for the advocacy group Witness at the Border, whose social media feeds are closely watched in immigration circles, said he isn't aware of any other commercial airlines that have provided such flights for ICE in the past five years he's been tracking flights. He called the decision by Avelo “unusual" considering charter companies the public likely hasn't heard of typically make these flights.

“They may fly a flight with all migrants or deportation flights today and they might fly fans to the Masters golf tournament tomorrow,” he said of the charters. “They don’t sell tickets in a retail manner like Avelo does.”

In New Haven, Connecticut, where Avelo flies out of Tweed New Haven Airport, Democratic Mayor Justin Elicker said he called Levy over the weekend to express his opposition to the arrangement and urged the CEO to reconsider.

“Avelo Airlines’ decision to charter deportation flights from Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona is deeply disappointing and disturbing. For a company that champions themselves as ‘New Haven’s hometown airline,’ this business decision in antithetical to New Haven’s values,” Elicker said in a statement.

“Travel should be about bringing people together, not tearing families apart,” he added.

A local immigrant advocacy group called the New Haven Immigrants coalition is urging people to sign an online petition pledging to boycott the airline.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ___ This story has been corrected to show the airport name is Mesa Gateway Airport.