Budget Airline With South Florida Routes Is Flying ICE Deportation Missions

Avelo Airlines, a budget carrier serving South Florida, is contracting with ICE to operate deportation flights from Arizona.

By B. Scott McLendon

April 11, 2025

Image: The back of an ICE agent wearing a bulletproof vest that reads, "POLICE ICE."

President Donald Trump plans to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. Photo by usicegov/Flickr

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South Florida residents took to social media Thursday to join calls to boycott Avelo Airlines over the company's recent agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to fly deportation flights out of Arizona.

The budget airline has agreed to start making deportation flights out of Mesa Gateway Airport in Arizona on May 12. It wasn't immediately clear whether the company would make similar agreements in other states, but a spokeswoman told New Times the company’s South Florida operations won’t be affected. Avelo flies to many Florida destinations, including Fort Lauderdale/Miami, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, and West Palm Beach.

"We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic," CEO Andrew Levy said in a public statement. "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 crew members employed for years to come."

Online job listings for Avelo flight attendants in Mesa, Arizona, state the "flights will be both domestic and international trips to support the DHS's deportation efforts."

The agreement comes as the Trump administration has ramped up its immigration crackdown, at times deporting hundreds of migrants a day. The multitude of arrests have federal officials looking to the private sector to help with President Donald Trump's deportation efforts.

ProPublica recently highlighted a flight attendant's challenging experience on a deportation flight, including instructions not to look passengers, who were chained to their seats, in the eyes, and administering oxygen to an asthmatic little girl. The woman worked for Global Crossing Airlines, also known as GlobalX, one of a few charter airline deportation contractors partnered with ICE. A couple of weeks earlier, the same airline flew 238 Venezuelan men into indefinite imprisonment in El Salvador.

Avelo Airlines appears to be the first commercial airline to contract with ICE for deportation flights.

B. Scott McLendon joined New Times staff in 2025. A national award-winning journalist, he previously covered education, crime, courts, and local government for daily newspapers in Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. He holds a bachelor's in journalism from Troy University.

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