Hell No Avelo!

Written By Indivisible Albany Team

Everything you Need to Know About “America’s Most Convenient Airline” and its Relationship with ICE and the Trump Administration

Who is Avelo Airlines and What’s Their Issue?

Avelo Airlines is a Houston-based, bargain-basement airline, founded in 2021 by Andrew C. Levy. Levy is a former executive at both United Airlines and Allegiant Air and, according to FEC records, he has been a campaign contributor to, among others, prominent Republicans like Chris Christie and Larry Hogan, but has also contributed to Connecticut Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Nevada Democrat Susie Lee. Levy acquired XTRAirlines in 2018 and, after selling off most of that entity’s assets, the rebranded Avelo Airlines began its first flights out of its original Burbank, California hub in April 2021. Avelo has since marketed itself as a convenient, reliable and economical travel option that specializes in servicing smaller local airports.

Consistent with that more localized approach, Avelo announced its arrival at Albany International Airport in February 2024. At the time, Capital Region officials heralded Avelo’s plan to offer twice-weekly, non-stop flights from Albany to the “Research Triangle” of Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy — himself no stranger to Albany International Airport — suggested that Avelo’s arrival was “great news for our expanding semiconductor research and development industry,” and Joanne Cunningham, the Chair of the Albany County Legislature, trumpeted it as a “smart strategy to enhance our local economic development while broadening our connection to other cities that are making impressive advancements.” It is not altogether clear what incentives or benefits that Avelo specifically received to lure it to Albany International, but reporting on Avelo’s operating agreements in other localities suggests that some air carriers might receive a “backstop,” or taxpayer-funded revenue guarantee, from the host community. Alternatively, the airline may receive incentives, such as marketing benefits or waivers of applicable fees, to facilitate its entry into a new market. To that end, Albany International advertises its own “Air Service Incentive Program” (ASIP) to encourage “incumbent and new entrant carriers to consider new market opportunities and expansion” at Albany International. Under Albany International’s ASIP, a carrier who provides at least two weekly flights to a previously unserved market — as Avelo does for Raleigh/Durham — is entitled to $200,000 in marketing benefits from Albany County, as well as a 24-month waiver of eight separate applicable fees normally remitted to Albany International for the right to use its terminals, tarmac and fuel services.

On the other hand, it appears that the meager increase in foot traffic brought to Albany International by Avelo’s twice-weekly flights is the only benefit that our own community receives from Avelo’s presence here. Six weeks after arriving at Albany International, Avelo did announce plans to expand service from Albany to Charlotte, North Carolina, but those expansion plans never actually materialized and were abandoned by April 2025. Perhaps expanded service in Albany fell victim to a much more profitable venture for Avelo because, that very same month, Avelo announced that it would be the first — and, to this day, still the only — commercial air carrier to conduct “deportation flights” as a charter carrier for ICE and the Trump Administration. To explain his decision to shift Avelo’s focus from commercial flights to ICE Air flights, Levy simply explained that Avelo’s arrangement with ICE was “too valuable not to pursue.” However, the precise value of Avelo’s contract with ICE remains a mystery — Avelo has conspired with ICE to keep their contractual terms secret — but Avelo and two charter-flight carriers, GlobalX and Eastern, now conduct 80% of the deportation flights conducted on ICE’s behalf.

Since May of this year, Avelo Airlines has therefore conducted hundreds of flights on ICE’s behalf, transporting thousands of chained American residents to distant lands with no guarantee that the people involved have received the Due Process afforded to them under the United States Constitution. The union representing Avelo’s flight attendants has raised safety concerns about these flights, and elected officials from Oregon to Connecticut — including Albany-area State Senator Patricia Fahy — have launched investigations and threatened to eliminate Avelo’s tax incentives in response to Avelo’s collaboration with ICE. Yet, while Avelo still only offers two weekly flights from Albany to North Carolina, it still conducts daily flights full of people kidnapped off of the streets by ICE.

What Can Be Done About Avelo’s Profiteering and Complicity with ICE?

Once celebrated as “America’s Most Convenient Airline,” Avelo Airlines is now a pariah, the focus of a national boycott and demonstration campaign aimed at ending Avelo’s collusion with ICE. So long as Avelo continues to her rip American families apart on behalf of ICE, it will remain in the sharp megawatt spotlight nationwide. There are indications that the campaign against Avelo is already bearing fruit. Just last month, Avelo shuttered its commercial operations all across the west coast, including flights out of its erstwhile Burbank hub. While Avelo claims that the closure of its west coast operations was simply a business decision by the financially troubled carrier, Avelo locations in Oregon, California and Arizona have been a frequent target of demonstrations for months. The Democratic Governor of Maryland, rising star Wes Moore, is under increasing pressure to sever that state’s ties to Avelo, and the City of New Haven, Connecticut — the site of an east coast Avelo hub within Congresswoman DeLauro’s district — has prohibited its employees from flying on Avelo Airlines.

Given the probable size of Avelo’s contract with ICE — estimates place the value in the hundreds of millions of dollars — and Avelo’s demonstrated propensity to put profit first, it seems unlikely that Avelo will be terminating its contract with ICE anytime soon. Nonetheless, just because Avelo remains undaunted, it does not mean that we need to tolerate complicit corporations like Avelo in our communities. That is why we here in the Capital Region will be continuing a two-pronged approach to expel Avelo Airlines from our local airport once and for all.

First, we will be maintaining and growing our monthly protests, on the fourth Saturday of every month, to keep Avelo’s cruelty and complicity in the public eye. Second, we will be placing increasing pressure on our local elected Albany County officials to expel Avelo Airlines from Albany International. The Albany County Airport Authority is the entity which lured Avelo to the Capital Region, and County Executive McCoy and the Majority Leader of the County Legislature — currently, Guilderland’s Dennis Feeney — are responsible for appointing the members of the Airport Authority Board. We will therefore be continuing to pressure County Executive McCoy and the members of the Albany County Legislature to do the right thing, to put their constituents over business interests and to put an end to Albany County’s entanglement with Avelo Airlines.

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