Anti-Avelo Billboards Are Coming Back

Avelo-boycott billboards will soon go back up on the highway near Tweed New Haven Airport — as a New Hampshire state lawmaker has redesigned his protest message in response to the budget airline’s claims of copyright infringement.

All the while, that same state lawmaker is waging a legal battle in federal court in Nevada over his right to criticize the company’s deportation flights for the Trump administration.

Seth Miller — a state representative from Dover, New Hampshire, and an independent aviation journalist — detailed those plans Wednesday during an online press conference hosted by The Coalition to Stop Avelo.

Roughly three dozen protest organizers and reporters from across the country tuned in to the Zoom call to hear about the group’s ongoing efforts to convince flyers not to use Avelo in protest of their decision to help the Trump administration remove migrants. Avelo flies 30 passenger-travel direct routes from Tweed New Haven Airport; it began its deportation flights on May 12 out of an airport in Mesa, Arizona.

“Avelo is a financially struggling company, poorly managed, poorly financed, and has by their own admission taken the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] contract in order to maintain their bottom line and profit,” said Oregon-based protester Matthew Boulay. ​“It’s shameful.”

Boulay described the group’s ​“battle against Avelo as a proxy battle against the worst excesses and abuses of the Trump administration.” The group is working to have ​“Avelo end its ICE contract or put Avelo out of business. That is our mission.”

He also praised the New Haven Immigrants Coalition for their online boycott campaign against Avelo that helped get the word out across the nation about the company’s decision to charter deportation flights. ​“Shout out and thank you to New Haven,” he said.

Avelo CEO Andrew Levy has defended the deportation contract as a way to bolster the company’s financial health at a time of increased competition to its New Haven passenger-travel business.

“The safety and well-being of our Crewmembers (employees), Customers and all individuals involved is our highest priority,” Avelo spokesperson Courtney Goff told the Independent for this story. ​“While we recognize the right of individuals to peacefully assemble, Avelo’s main priority will continue to be maintaining the safety and timeliness of our operation.”

In addition to Boulay, speakers at Wednesday’s presser included Sandra Hernandez-Lomeli of the Oregon-based group Latinos Unidos Siempre, Bienvenidos, Alexander Flood from the office of New York State Sen. Patricia Fahy, and Miller.

During his time at the virtual mic, Miller spoke about his effort to protest Avelo by placing protest messages on billboards near Tweed airport. The resulting legal kerfuffle earned him a cease and desist order from Avelo over alleged copyright infringement, and a subsequent writeup in the New York Times.

Miller, a first-term state legislator in New Hampshire, said that this Avelo-boycott protest is ​“personal,” given his lifelong love of aviation. ​“Aviation is the thing that connects. It is not a thing that tears apart.”

Given that ​“80 percent” of Avelo’s business is based out of Tweed, Miller decided New Haven is where the company is ​“most vulnerable.”

And so, on April 25, he entered into a contract with a company called Lamar Advertising Corporation to lease three billboards, one from May 5 to May 25, one from May 5 to June 1, and one from June 2 to June 15, all on I‑95 near Tweed airport.

The first two billboards went up on May 5.

“Does your vacation support their deportation?” the billboards read. ​“Just say avelNO!” Below that message read, ​“Paid for by AvGeek Action Alliance — avelNO.com”. The yellow and purple colors of the billboard as well as the font used for the ​“aveloNO” message mimic that of Avelo’s official company logo. The billboard also includes a picture of the tail fin of an Avelo plane.

As Miller said on Wednesday — and as documented in a federal lawsuit he filed against Avelo in Nevada on May 16 — the budget airline’s lawyer sent him a cease-and-desist order on May 9, telling him to take down the billboards.

“Given your clear familiarity with Avelo and its trademarks, the blatant use of our client’s trademarks and trade dress with ​‘The avelNo! campaign,’ and associated websites, billboards, and marketing material, constitutes deliberate and willful trademark infringement and unfair competition,” attorney Drew Smith wrote to Miller.

Miller noted that Avelo’s lawyer sent a similar letter to Lamar, the billboard company Miller had a lease with. The billboards then came down. ​“On May 15, Miller spoke with a Lamar representative. She told Miller that because of Avelo’s letter, Lamar had taken down Miller’s billboards,” he wrote in his lawsuit.

And so Miller and his company Proton Associates, LLC filed a lawsuit against Avelo in Nevada federal court, seeking ​“a declaratory judgment that his campaign does not infringe Avelo’s trademarks, trade dress, or copyright”. Miller said that his billboards did not commit any such copyright infringement in part because ​“it clearly mocks Avelo’s trademark, and it is therefore paradigmatic protected speech.”

“Avelo is free to disagree with Miller, to criticize him, and to advocate its position to the public,” Miller’s lawsuit reads. ​“It is free to call Miller a naif, a fool, or worse. But it is not free to use baseless threats of litigation to suppress Miller’s criticism. This Court should declare that Miller does not violate Avelo’s copyright, trademark, and trade dress, and allow the public to continue seeing Miller’s free speech.”

At Wednesday’s press conference, Miller added that, while this legal battle plays out in Nevada, ​“the billboards are going back up” in New Haven.

He told the Independent that he approved the new art on Tuesday, and he expects the new billboards to be ​“back up within a few days.”

The new billboard designs, pictured at the top of this story, are in blue, white, and black, and bear the messages: ​“Does your vacation support their deportation? Just Say no to Avelo” and ​“You’ll get Ice with your soda. They’ll fly shackled by ICE. Just Say no to Avelo.” Both also state that they are paid for by AvGeek Action Alliance.

“Thanks for staying strong [and] not getting scared,” Boulay said to Miller at Wednesday’s presser. ​“It’s a great story that’s not over yet.”