Avelo moving jets east after announcing plans to exit the West Coast

"Our West Coast closure has no effect on our Philadelphia/Delaware Valley base at ILG," Avelo spokesperson Courtney Goff stated. "We are in the planning phases of relocating the three planes to the East Coast ... there are only positive outcomes for our East Coast airports." 

Avelo has indicated to Delaware airport operator the Delaware River and Bay Authority that  it will consider additional service from Wilmington Airport. It's now serving more than a dozen cities from the airport with mainly twice-weekly flights.

The airline recently expanded its schedule until early February and will add more winter  holiday  flights from Wilmington later this year.

Wilmington has emerged as one of Avelo's stronger markets after a bumpy launch more than two years ago that saw the carrier trim its schedule and move one of its two ILG-based  Boeing 737  jets  to another airport.

Avelo  later beefed up its ILG  schedule and brought back the second jet. The airline is known for having a  "fail fast" strategy that leads to quick exits. Early this year, the airline dropped service to Atlanta and the Charlotte suburb of Concord, NC after seeing weak traffic.

Avelo issued the following statement regarding its West Coast  decision:

"After careful consideration, Avelo is closing its base at Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) later this year. On August 12, 2025, we will reduce our BUR operation to one aircraft before exiting the remaining aircraft on December 2, 2025, and closing the base.

 This was not an easy decision. Our company’s deepest operational roots are in BUR, having launched our first flight there over four years ago during the COVID pandemic. There is rarely one singular reason why decisions like this are made, and this one is no different. We believe the continuation service from BUR in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop.  Avelo has previously made several changes over the past few years to our West Coast operations to improve our financial results. Despite the investment of significant time, resources and efforts, our West Coast operations have not produced the results necessary to continue our presence there. The aircraft in BUR are expected to support growth in our East coast bases, where we have significantly more opportunity to continue our path to sustainable cash flow generation."

Avelo denied i reports that its decision was due to  pushback from agreeing to do ICE Air charter flights for the Department of Homeland Security.

The airlline now has two unpainted jets at an airport outside Phoenix, AZ.

However,  West Coast  opponents of the ICE move, who have been more active than their Eastern  counterparts,  declared victory.

Protests were held outside Wilmington Airport and at  its biggest hub in New Haven. It led to condemnations from public officials, especially in Connecticut.

Avelo faced  a cash crunch earlier in the year and cited financial reasons in its decision to take on charter work for ICE. 

Aviation industry  sources indicated the company was down to $2 million in cash and was in the process of raising $100 million from investors with much of that money to be used for growing its operations.

A battle with rival Breeze at two Connecticut airports and tougher times in the airline industry were also seen as contributing to the ICE Air decision.

Federal statistics on boardings have shown weaknesses in its West Coast operations before taking on the work for ICE, which remains in the news for its masked personnel, mass round-ups  and detention policies.