« The airline Avelo began direct flights from Burbank, California, to Redmond in May. It’s not the only smaller airline that sees potential in Central Oregon. Submitted photo

The low-cost Avelo Airlines will cancel its flights out of Redmond Airport starting next month as part of a strategic move to shut down its base at Burbank Airport in the Los Angeles area.

The first route to shut down is the Redmond to Sonoma County, California route, which will end Aug. 10. The next day it will stop its Redmond to Las Vegas route, according to the company. The last flight from Redmond to Burbank will be Dec. 1.

‘This was not an easy decision,” said Andrew Levy, company CEO in an email. “Our company’s deepest operational roots are in Burbank, having launched our first flight there four years ago during the COVID_19 pandemic.

“We believe the continuation of service from Burbank in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop.”

Customers who have flights booked can visit the Manage Trips section of Avelo’s website to cancel their flight or receive a refund.

Avelo ran into some headwinds after announcing in April that it would fly federal deportation flights from Arizona. Protesters in several cities railed against the airline for working with immigration authorities.

Avelo will redeploy the aircraft assigned to canceled routes to business areas and beef up its East Coast operations, the company said.

The airline came on the travel scene with a fleet of 20 Boeing Next Generation 737 aircraft and started serving 55 destinations in the United States, Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. It used the Hollywood Burbank Airport as its base on the west coast.

Airfares started with the low fair of $35 one way. Since starting five years ago, it has flown about 4 million customers on 30,000 flights, according to the company. Its business model was to provide air service to underserved communities with nonstop flights from smaller, easier to use airports.

In 2023 it achieved the industry’s lowest flight cancelation rates and was ranked No. 2 for on-time reliability, according to the company.