Airline AVELO budget to control expulsion flights for ice from Arizona

Budget carrier Avelo Airlines has signed an agreement to pilot federal expulsion flights from Arizona from May, according to the company, the founder of which recognized that the decision could be controversial.

Andrew Levy, also CEO of the airline based in Houston, said that Aato flies for the Immigration Control and Application Agency of the American Department of Internal Security as part of a “long -term charter program” to support the agency’s expulsion efforts. The company has decided that this decision would help expansion and protect jobs, he said.

“We realize that this is a sensitive and complicated subject,” Levy said in a statement.

National and international flights will be supported by three Boeing 737-800 planes and based on Mesa Gateway airport, Avelo said in a statement.

In a list of online jobs for the Arizona operation, Avelo declares that “thefts will be both national and international trips to support DHS expulsion efforts”.

Tom Cartwright, flight data analyst for the defense group of the border advocacy group, whose social media flows are closely monitored in immigration circles, said that he was not aware of any other commercial airline that provided such ice flights in the past five years he followed flights. He described the “unusual” Avelo decision given the charter companies that the public probably did not hear from these flights.

“They can travel a flight with all migrants or expulsion flights today and they could fly fans to the Masters golf tournament tomorrow,” he said about charters. “They do not sell tickets in a commercial manner such as Avelo.”

In New Haven, Connecticut, where Avelo flies from Tweed New Haven airport, Democratic Mayor Justin Elicker said he had called Levy during the weekend to express his opposition to the arrangement and urged the CEO to reconsider.

“The decision by Avelo Airlines to Charter Expulsion flights from Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona is deeply disappointing and disturbing. For a company that champions as” New Haven Hommet’s airline “of this commercial decision in the antithetical values ​​of New Haven values,” Elicker said in a press release.

“Travels should be to bring people together, not to tear families,” he added.

A local immigrant defense group called New Haven Immigrants Coalition urges people to sign an online petition committing to boycott the airline.

Ice did not immediately respond to a request for comments.