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WEDNESDAY UPDATE: A few of our readers reached out after reading an article published in the SFGATE on Tuesday announcing that Avelo Airlines is “shuttering base operations” at the Charles M. Schulz Airport in Santa Rosa next month to “make way for deportation flights out of Arizona.” Our readers wanted to know: What does this move mean for Humboldt? 

To be clear, the airline is not abandoning the Bay Area airport, as the SFGATE headline might imply. While Avelo is relocating base operations from Santa Rosa to Burbank and reducing the number of flights offered at the Charles M. Schulz Airport, it will continue air service to Burbank, Bend/Redmond, Ore., Las Vegas, Nev., and “seasonally” to Palm Springs.

Avelo’s Communications Manager Courtney Goff told the Outpost the airline’s decision to move its base out of Sonoma County “has nothing to do with [the Department of Homeland Security] charters.”

“Avelo has decided to close the base in Santa Rosa/Sonoma County (STS) almost a year after it was opened due to low demand and because achieving necessary financial results there has proven more elusive than expected,” she wrote in an emailed response to our inquiry. “We already have a base in Burbank that was originally opened in April 2021, we will utilize the planes there to facilitate the remaining STS routes.”

Asked if flights between Burbank and Humboldt were on the chopping block, Goff said, “ACV and Humboldt County is a great route and airport/community partner for us, and we have no plans to end service.”

Goff did not respond to our follow-up questions about the amount and duration of the airline’s contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). However, she did say that Avelo has chartered deportation flights for the federal government in the past.

 “We also flew these charters under the Biden administration,” she said. “Regardless of the administration or party affiliation, as a U.S. flag carrier when our country calls and requests [and] assistance our practice is to say yes. We follow all protocols from DHS and FAA [Federal Aviation Administration], honoring our core value of Safety Always.”

As of this writing, the online petition to boycott the airline has garnered over 7,000 signatures.

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Original post: After brokering a deal with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Avelo Airlines next month will begin working with federal immigration officials to run deportation flights out of Arizona. The “long-term charter program,” which will be based at Mesa Gateway Airport (AZA), will include both domestic and international flights to “support the Department’s deportation efforts,” according to a statement from the airline.

Reached via email this morning, Avelo’s Communications Manager Courtney Goff told the Outpost that the flights are limited to Arizona and “will not affect our California flights.” She directed further inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security.

The budget airline, which launched service between Humboldt County and Burbank in 2021, is actively recruiting “energetic, highly motivated” flight attendants to service deportation flights, which will begin on May 12. 

The deal has drawn sharp criticism from local officials in some of the communities Avleo serves, including Justin Elicker, the Mayor of New Haven, Conn., who called the decision “deeply disappointing and disturbing” in an interview with the New Haven Register. The New Haven Immigrants Coalition launched an online petition to boycott the airline, which, as of this writing, has garnered 514 signatures. 

Statement from Avelo Airlines:

Avelo Airlines has signed an agreement for a long-term charter program flying for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration Control and Enforcement agency. Avelo’s DHS operations will be supported by three 737-800s based at Mesa Gateway Airport (AZA) starting on May 12. Flights will be both domestic and international to support the Department’s deportation efforts.

With this, Avelo will open a base at AZA with Avelo pilots, flight attendants and aircraft technicians, as well as appropriate local leaders. We expect to begin hiring locally for these positions immediately. Current Avelo Crewmembers (employees) will have the first option to transfer to our new AZA base.

Avelo Airlines Founder and CEO Andrew Levy said, “We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic. After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come.”