SALEM, Ore. — Avelo Airlines will end all commercial operations in Oregon later this year, with its final departure from Salem scheduled for August and a broader West Coast wind-down concluding in Eugene by December. The move is part of a larger corporate strategy that includes closing the airline’s Burbank, California hub and shifting resources toward more profitable East Coast markets.
The announcement caught city officials off guard. According to airport personnel, the city received no advance notice prior to Avelo’s public disclosure. After more than a year of commercial service, which many considered a local success, the city now faces a familiar silence in its terminal — less than 15 months after celebrating the return of flights for the first time since 2008.
Flights between Salem and Burbank had reportedly performed well, especially during peak travel months. Some flights were nearly full. City data estimates the airline generated $19 million in new local economic activity during its time in Salem, boosting business travel, hotel stays, and regional tourism.
Despite that, the airline says its departure is part of a broader restructuring effort to consolidate operations in high-growth areas. In shuttering its Burbank hub, Avelo will free up aircraft and staff for redeployment elsewhere — particularly on the East Coast, where the company says demand and margins are stronger.
But the decision to leave Oregon comes at a time of intensifying political scrutiny. Over the past several months, advocacy groups have staged weekly protests in multiple Oregon cities, criticizing the airline’s reported involvement in federal deportation flights. The public pressure expanded into formal policy responses. City councils in other West Coast jurisdictions moved to restrict public travel through Avelo. Attorneys general and legislators in multiple states launched investigations and drafted legislation to limit subsidies for airlines engaged in immigration enforcement.
Although Avelo officials have insisted these pressures did not influence their decision, the Oregon exits align with mounting regional and national resistance to their ICE-related contracts. Some Oregon city officials had already begun questioning whether to renew local agreements with the airline, citing both ethical and operational concerns.
Still, within Salem, the loss is being felt most immediately as an economic setback.
“The Salem Chamber received the unfortunate news that Avelo Airlines will be ceasing operations from the Salem-Willamette Valley Airport beginning on August 10 and redeploying their aircraft to their East Coast operation,” said Tom Hoffert, CEO of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce. “After the loss of our commercial air service in 2009, substantial efforts from countless community leaders successfully restarted commercial air service in 2023. This effort took significant investment from the local business community ($350,000), along with a federal grant ($850,000), to fund the $1.2 million minimum revenue guarantee needed to partner with Avelo. This fund was established without financial contribution from the City of Salem’s budget.”
That investment, Hoffert said, helped attract over 37,000 new visitors to Marion County and infused more than $31 million in new regional revenue, largely supporting the region’s 7,500 tourism and hospitality jobs. He added: “Losing this momentum will negatively impact regional economic development. We remain committed and hopeful to successfully landing another commercial airline in the near future at Salem-Willamette Valley Airport.”
While some leaders maintain that Avelo’s Oregon performance was strong, others point to the carrier’s sudden pullout as a sign of instability — or, at minimum, a poor fit for long-term regional partnership.
“Avelo stopping flights out of Salem hints at something much more concerning,” said Levi Herrera-Lopez, Executive Director of Mano a Mano. “Regardless of how much Salem leaders fought to keep them, they were always ready to cancel on us at a moment’s notice, and that is just not the basis of a healthy relationship.”
In response to the exit, efforts are already underway to fill the gap. Fly Salem, a coalition of business and travel advocates that initially helped recruit Avelo, is actively pursuing conversations with other carriers that might serve the region.
“Fly Salem has been in a continuous state of recruitment for the last seven years and there are a number of airlines we will follow up with to see if they want to take advantage of this new opportunity,” said Brent DeHart, owner of Salem Aviation Fuel. “We have a number of things now that we did not have when we were recruiting Avelo. We have TSA readiness, we have statistics that show that the planes were predominantly full, and we need no new improvements for the terminal.”
City officials said the bulk of the airport improvements made to accommodate Avelo were one-time infrastructure upgrades that will benefit any future carrier. Approximately $350,000 remains in private funding from the original revenue guarantee, which could be reallocated to a new airline if terms are reached.
Meanwhile, community leaders are working to reframe the exit not as a loss, but as a pivot point. Travel Salem and other local groups believe the high load factors and regional demand give Salem a competitive advantage in attracting new service.
Though no replacement airline has yet been confirmed, there is cautious optimism that flights could resume by spring or summer of 2025. Until then, local travelers will once again rely on Portland and Eugene, both a long drive from the city center.
But unlike past years when Salem’s airport sat idle, it now has something new to offer: a track record.
As DeHart put it, “We’ve proven that people will get on the plane in Salem.”
