A couple of months after announcing that it was ditching its controversial ICE deportation contract, Houston-based Avelo Airlines is being fined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over flight attendant drug testing.
According to the FAA, the airline failed to include 10 of its flight attendants in its drug and alcohol testing ‘pool’ during various periods between April 2024 and November 2024.
Avelo has been sent an enforcement letter from the FAA in which the agency has proposed a $65,000 civil penalty against the airline for breaching stringent regulations contained within Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 120 (often condensed to 14 CFR Part 120).
These rules dictate that all ‘safety-sensitive’ airline employees, such as pilots and flight attendants, must be subject to random drug and alcohol testing.
For 2026, airlines must select 25% of safety-sensitive workers for a drug test and 10% for an alcohol test, although there is some flexibility in how airlines manage their own drug testing programs.
One area that does trip up airlines from time to time are safety sensitive workers who have taken a period of extended leave for medical or personal reasons. These workers will often be temporarily removed from the pool of workers subject to a random test, but it’s critical that they are re-enrolled as soon as they return to work.
In January, Avelo announced it was dropping its lucrative deportation contract with the Department of Homeland Security, less than a year after battling calls for a boycott over the agreement.
Avelo had big plans for its ICE flights and even set up a special deportation base in Mesa, Arizona, where the airline would run the flights on behalf of DHS.
Avelo’s decision to abruptly end the contract came just hours after an ICE agent was filmed fatally shooting 37-year-old mother of three Renée Good in Minnesota.
According to chief executive Andrew Levy, however, the decision to end the contract wasn’t down to moral obligations but rather because the ICE flights weren’t proving as lucrative as the airline had hoped.
At this point, Avelo really should just re-brand, like, pick a new name. And, ditch the 737; refocus on Embraer or A220, smaller aircraft for secondary or tertiary US cities, a la Breeze. Or not, whatever.