Chris Volpe file photo
At an Avelo protest outside Tweed in April.
Avelo Airlines announced this week new nonstop service from New Haven to Maine. What it didn’t announce were new flights from Arizona to Guatemala, to facilitate the Trump administration’s removal of migrants.
Avelo Airlines first sparked outrage in early April when the airline announced a new position for a full-time flight attendant, to be based out of Mesa, Arizona. The posting came with a disclaimer that the job “is for a charter program for the Department of Homeland Security. Flights will be both domestic and international trips to support DHS’s deportation efforts.” ICE Air Operations is headquartered in Mesa, Ariz.
Avelo CEO Andrew Levy has defended the decision to partner with the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a way to offset financial troubles stemming from stiffer passenger-travel competition at Tweed. Click here, here, here, here, and here.
Avelo launched its first flight as part of DHS’s deportation efforts on May 12: Avelo Airlines flight XP48 took off from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway and landed at Alexandria International Airport in Alexandria, Louisiana. That Louisiana airport is the site of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and removal staging facility.
As the Yale Daily News first reported earlier this week, Avelo flew to Guatemala’s La Aurora International Airport on XP48 on Monday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware. The aircraft, a Boeing 737 – 800, took off from Mesa, Ariz., at 5:34 a.m. MST. It stopped at El Paso International Airport in El Paso, Texas, and took off again at 9:09 a.m. MDT. The plane landed in Guatemala at 12:26 p.m. CST.
That same Avelo plane followed the same route to Guatemala again on Thursday. It took off from Mesa at 5:09 a.m. MST, stopped in El Paso, and landed in Guatemala at 11:36 a.m. CST.
XP48 has also seen destinations like Dallas Love Field Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and — on Friday — Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, Calif.
Avelo Airlines directed all requests for comment to DHS and CSI Aviation, which provides air charter services and is the contractor for ICE. CSI Aviation did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.
In response to questions about these flights and whether Monday’s flight to Guatemala carried deported migrants, an ICE spokesperson stated, “Due to operational security considerations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not release information about future removal flights or schedules in advance. However, the removal of illegal aliens who are unlawfully present in the United States is a core responsibility of ICE and is regularly carried out by ICE Air Operations.”
The spokesperson said that ICE field offices coordinate with ICE Air Operations “to arrange removal travel and domestic transfers, which are conducted using both commercial airlines and ICE Air charter aircraft.” ICE Air Operations has five main locations: Mesa, Arizona; Miami, Florida; Alexandria, Louisiana; and San Antonio and Brownsville, Texas.
“Each location supports daily domestic transfer and removal missions,” according to ICE, and flights are modified as necessary to meet “operational requirements.”
“Removal missions are regularly conducted to countries in Central America, including Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, as well as to destinations in the Caribbean, South America, and, when necessary, to Europe, Asia, Africa, and other parts of the world for special high-risk missions.”
XP48 isn’t the only Avelo flight aiding in DHS’s removal efforts. Avelo Airlines Flight XP47, also a Boeing 737 – 800, has had daily flights out of Mesa, Ariz., since launching on May 13. Flights are largely on the western side of the country and include destinations such as the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Calif.; Yakima Air Terminal in Yakima, Wash.; Denver International Airport; and Harry Reid International Airport in Paradise, Nev. So far, no international flights are listed for XP47.
In its email response to request for comment for this article, ICE included its restraint policy for deportation flights. Adults transported by ICE Air aircraft are fully restrained by the use of handcuffs, waist chains, and leg irons — both during flights within and outside the continental U.S. Children are restrained while ICE transfers them on flights.
Children under 18 years old are not handcuffed or restrained unless “an individual juvenile has demonstrated or threatened violent behavior, has a history of criminal activity, or demonstrates a likelihood of escape,” according to the ICE Air policy handbook. Anyone under 12 should never be in “full restraints.”
Meanwhile, in the press release that Avelo Airlines did send out this week, airline spokesperson Courtney Goff wrote that, on Wednesday, Avelo flew its first direct flight from Tweed New Haven Airport to Maine’s Portland International Jetport. It plans to operate this route twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays, using Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft.
“We’re excited to launch our 30th route at Tweed-New Haven as we take flight to scenic Portland, Maine,” Avelo CEO Andrew Levy is quoted as saying in that press release. “We continue to offer Connecticut travelers convenient, affordable and industry-leading reliable air travel to their favorite destinations. This service also makes visiting Southern Connecticut, and everything the greater New England and New York regions have to offer, easier than ever.”