photo credit: OrangeRye/Wikimedia
An Avelo Airlines 737-800 at the Hollywood-Burbank Airport, May 9, 2021.

Avelo Airlines is closing its operations base at the Sonoma County Airport, just a year after opening it.

The Houston-based budget carrier said low passenger demand has made fiscal stability for the Santa Rosa operations hub a challenge.

The move came as a surprise, said Charles M. Schulz Airport manager Jon Stout.

"Basically, they wanted us to know before the notification went out to employees, in case employees came and asked us questions," Stout said.

Avelo said it will still operate flights between Sonoma County and the Burbank airport, Las Vegas, Bend/Redmond, and seasonally to Palm Springs.

Stout said there'll need to be some changes at STS.

"You know, we always try and look at opportunities with other carriers and our current carriers for markets," Stout said. "Not everything that Avelo is doing has a potential for a new carrier to come in and step in."

Avelo said the decision to close the operations base is unrelated to the company's new contract with the Department of Homeland Security, operating deportation flights out of Mesa, Arizona.

But, the airline is planning to open a new, fully staffed flight hub at the Mesa Gateway airport.

Asked if deportations flight might come and go from Sonoma County, Stout said, "Avelo doing that here? We've never had one to my knowledge,and I definitely don't see how Avelo would do that with their size."

Stout said there has been some immediate backlash following Avelo's announcement.

"[There's been] probably about seven to ten emails through our comment portal, on our website saying that they will not be flying Avelo due to these actions," Stout said. 

Avelo, which previously operated deportation flights during the Biden administration, plans to start doing so again on May 12th.

The airline plans to close base operations in Santa Rosa by May 1st.

Avelo's full statement to KRCB News is included below.

“Avelo has decided to close the base in Santa Rosa / Sonoma County (STS) almost a year after it was opened due to low demand and because achieving necessary financial results there has proven more elusive than expected. While it is no longer a base, we will continue to serve STS to Los Angeles / Burbank, Calif. (BUR), Las Vegas (LAS), Bend / Redmond, Calif (RDM) and seasonally to Palm Springs, Calif. (PSP). This has nothing to do with DHS charters.

Avelo Airlines has signed an agreement for a long-term charter program flying for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration Control and Enforcement agency. Avelo’s DHS operations will be supported by three 737-800s based at Mesa Gateway Airport (AZA) starting on May 12. Flights will be both domestic and international to support the Department’s deportation efforts.

With this, Avelo will open a base at AZA with Avelo pilots, flight attendants and aircraft technicians, as well as appropriate local leaders. We expect to begin hiring locally for these positions immediately. Current Avelo Crewmembers (employees) will have the first option to transfer to our new AZA base.”

Avelo Airlines Founder and CEO Andrew Levy said, “We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic. 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 Crewmembers employed for years to come.”

We also flew these charters under the Biden administration. Regardless of the administration or party affiliation, as a U.S. flag carrier when our country calls and requests assistance our practice is to say yes. We follow all protocols from DHS and FAA, honoring our core value of Safety Always.