Trump Alliance Turbulence: Avelo Airlines Becomes Symbol of Political Risk for Brands
REETU SINGH
When Donald Trump returned to the White House, Avelo Airlines, a small commercial airline that mostly serves smaller airports across the U.S., stuck up its hand and announced that it would be contracting with the new administration to fly deportation flights.
Now, it’s one thing to see your government doing that — flying people off with no legal process to huge torture prisons in the middle of El Salvador — but it’s another thing to be offered the opportunity yourself to purchase a commercial flight on the very same plane that was just used to take people in chains and shackles without any due process at all.
Avelo Airlines’ decision to fly deportation flights for Trump while also offering commercial flights to Americans was always going to be a difficult mix, and people protested against the airline at a large number of airports where Avelo has tried to stay in business.