GROUNDED

Airline Facing Deportation Flights Backlash Slashes Routes Amid Protests

Avelo Airlines will close one of its California bases amid boycott calls.

A Texas-based budget airline used by the Trump administration to deport migrants is scaling back its operations amid major protests and boycotts. Avelo Airlines has struggled financially after it signed a contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in April to fly migrants to detention centres both domestically and internationally as part of Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans. The company announced it will begin reducing the number of flights it operates out of Hollywood Burbank Airport from 13 flights a day to just one until December, reported Reuters. The airline will then close the base it has at the California airport entirely. In a statement, Avelo denied that the decision was linked to the protests and backlash over its contract with the Trump administration, but because it is deciding to pull back in its attempt to expand on the West Coast. “We believe the continuation service from (Burbank) in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop,” a spokesperson said. Nancy Klein, who has organized multiple protests against Avelo in California, said the airline’s decision proves that activists targeting Trump’s mass deportations are on the “right side of history.”