Running into protests and poor PR after choosing to continue running deportation flights for the Trump administration, Houston-based low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines announced earlier this month that it would end service to Las Vegas, California’s Sonoma and Burbank and Oregon’s Redmond.
With several routes to these destinations ending in August and others running until the start of December, Avelo Airlines will completely shut down its West Coast service by the end of 2025.Â
This marks a significant decline in operations for an airline that expanded to a peak 48 domestic and five international destinations just three years after its rebranded launch in 2021.
“We believe the continuation service from [the above-mentioned cities] in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop,” an Avelo Airlines representative said in an earlier statement.
Don’t miss the move: SIGN UP for TheStreet’s FREE Daily news
‘I’m really shocked that this is their policy’: Traveler on Avelo Airlines
With service to Sonoma County in the northern part of the San Francisco Bay Area also ending on Aug. 11, many travelers had already booked flights for later in the summer. As first reported by ABC News, some received vouchers that they will not be able to use unless they fly from a completely different region of the country.
“I’m really shocked that this is their policy and that they are not willing to refund people that can no longer use their flights,” Santa Rosa resident Jo Ellen Ihinger said to a local ABC branch. “I think it’s bad business. It’s treating the public like we don’t matter.”
Related: Low-cost airline many take starts running ICE deportation flights
Barbara Mansinne, who lives in Rohnert Park outside of San Francisco, also said when she heard about the end of service, she tried reaching out to Avelo.
She sought to turn a credit for a flight she canceled into a refund, or at the very least, extend its expiration date beyond Oct. 1, but was told that this was not something the airline would do.
Image source: Shutterstock
‘They’re not doing the right thing’: Another Avelo traveler
The airline responded by saying that Mansinne was not entitled to a refund since she canceled her own flight, but could use the Avelo Travel Funds on any flight that is still running.Â
The problem is that the flight Mansinne canceled was scheduled for after the date when the airline planned to stop service to the San Francisco Bay Area, so she would not have been able to take it.
“They’re not doing the right thing, and [it’s] terribly frustrating,” Mansinne told ABC.Â
Another passenger explained that vouchers are entirely useless for travelers who have no connection to the East Coast network, as “there’s no place that Avelo flies from near my house anymore.”
More on travel:
- Another regional airline is now on the verge of bankruptcy
- Government issues new travel advisory on popular beach destination
- Another country just issued a new visa requirement for visitors
As part of its business model, Avelo built out a network of serving largely secondary cities that do not have the traffic to be taken up by mainstream airlines.Â
Many Avelo customers had few options for flying directly out of their smaller city and relied on the airline to either save them from a long drive to the larger urban airport or, in cases where the airport is more rural, serve as their main connection with the rest of the country.
Related: TSA issues stark warning about transporting these in underwear
