By Doyinsola Oladipo
-Avelo Airlines, a Texas-based budget carrier, said on Monday it will close its base at Hollywood Burbank Airport as it struggles financially, amid calls to boycott the airline over its decision to operate deportation flights under a contract with the Trump administration.
Avelo signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in April to transport migrants to detention centers inside and outside the U.S.
The company said it will reduce its operation at the airport to one aircraft until December 2 and then close the base which currently serves 13 routes.
Avelo said the protests and its contract with DHS did not have any effect on its decision to close the base and have not impacted its business.
“We believe the continuation service from (Burbank) in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop,” the company said in a statement.
Avelo said it had made several changes over the past few years to its West Coast operations but they did not produce the results necessary to continue presence there.
The company has faced a backlash from employees and customers due to its partnership with the DHS. Protests have cropped up across the country from outside the Burbank Airport to their hub in New Haven, Connecticut, calling on the airline to end its partnership with the DHS and for customers to boycott the carrier.
Nancy Klein, from Hollywood, California, said she has organized seven protests in collaboration with activist groups CA27Indivisible and East Valley Indivisible in Southern California and believes the company’s decision to end their service at the airport is partially due their calls to boycott the airline.
“This change in Avelo’s business operations is some evidence that being on the right side of history, while being principled and persistent, can make a difference,” Klein said in a statement.
Klein said she is planning the next protest against the carrier at Burbank Airport on July 27.
(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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