Avelo Airlines dialed back operations at Wilmington International Airport in January, announcing it would no longer maintain a base at ILM and would reduce flights as part of an overall network restructuring.
The discount airline’s changes resulted in layoffs. Courtney Goff, Avelo communications manager, said in January that the company had been in touch with its Wilmington-based staff. “Crewmembers have been told they can put in for transfers, or any open position within the company,” she said. “Since we are still serving ILM, there will be opportunities to stay at ILM and work Avelo flights.”
Avelo officials informed the state of North Carolina that 82 employees in Wilmington and 78 in Raleigh, where the airline also closed a base, would be impacted by layoffs as a result of its airport pullback announcements.
Avelo began its tenure at ILM in June 2022. After reaching a high of 17 destinations from Wilmington, Avelo Airlines announced on Jan. 7 it was cutting nine nonstop flights at ILM. But the airline extended its seasonal service (through Aug. 18) at the local airport a couple weeks later, bringing back two seasonal flights – ILM to Wilmington, Delaware (ILG), and ILM to Rochester, New York (ROC), as well as capacity increases from New Haven, Connecticut (HVN), to ILM.
That gives ILM a summer lineup from Avelo of ILG; HVN; ROC; Nashville, Tennessee (BNA); Tampa, Florida (TPA); and Baltimore, Maryland/Washington D.C. (BWI), said Erin McNally, ILM’s marketing, air service development and PR manager.
Six of the nine flights cut by Avelo in the Jan. 7 announcement are served by ILM’s other airlines, which played a role in the cuts, Goff said. The other airlines at ILM are American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Breeze Airways, JetBlue and Sun Country Airlines.
Avelo’s route from ILM to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, was one of the flights cut, having just started on Dec. 24 and lauded as the first international passenger flight at ILM.
Airline officials also said in the early January news release that the airline is streamlining its network around four current bases: New Haven; Delaware; Charlotte/Concord (USA); and Central Florida/Lakeland (LAL). In addition, the airline plans to open a base in Dallas/McKinney, Texas (TKI) in late 2026, according to the release.
The seeming turnabout at ILM comes after the Business Journal reported in December that Avelo leadership foresaw the airline growing locally.
“We still think that there’s a large, untapped opportunity set out of Wilmington, that as we grow as an airline, we want to tap into more,” said Trevor Yealy, Avelo’s head of commercial, at the time. “We’re excited about the prospects that remain ahead of us in Wilmington.”
Goff said the company wasn’t testing the waters by establishing a base at ILM in April last year but has a legitimate desire to build operations.
“It was never a test market,” Goff said.
Jeff Bourk, director of ILM, said he’s optimistic that the service gap will be filled.
“Hopefully, in the summer or near future, Avelo or others will add these markets back at ILM.”
Avelo had a calendar year of ups and downs. After poor returns in the first quarter, the airline began flying deportation charters for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the summer, prompting public backlash, including in its hometown.
Commercial ridership improved during peak travel months, and on Jan. 6, the company announced the completion of a recapitalization.
“The airline will use this cash infusion and balance sheet strength to execute its long-term strategy,” Avelo officials stated in a news release.
The plan has also involved improving the company’s balance sheet by removing six Boeing 737-700 aircraft, all of which were scheduled to be returned by the end of January.
“Avelo’s fleet has reduced by a third, and they had to make some difficult adjustments,” Bourk said in January.
Avelo abandoned its last California base, at the Hollywood Burbank Airport, in December. The company traded in its West Coast operations for the more simplified East Coast plan announced in January.
“We have four-and-a-half years of data to support our view of the world, the combination of small easy-to-use airports with low everyday fares, industry-leading reliability, offering a simple basic product on short-haul flights,” Avelo CEO Andrew Levy told Brett Snyder, who writes the industry newsletter Cranky Flier, in September. “We believe without a shadow of a doubt that this works.”
Avelo also announced Jan. 7 that it was discontinuing its relationship with ICE. Avelo had been flying deportations out of Mesa, Arizona. The Coalition to Stop Avelo and other grassroots opposition groups claimed victory, but Avelo has said a lack of strong return in the arrangement tipped their decision. Goff claimed that boycotts and turned-off customers weren’t a factor.
“The government flying did not affect our commercial business,” Goff said. “We had more people fly Avelo in 2025 than we did in 2024 with little network growth.”
