Avelo Airlines Announces Full West Coast Exit: Last Flights to Santa Rosa, Eugene, and Kalispell by December 2025 - Travel And Tour World

Published 12 hours ago• 7 minute read

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

In a radical change to its network strategy, Avelo Airlines has announced full plans to transition away from its West Coast Reality by December 2025. The decision caps years of trying to make a go of it in a market notorious for cutthroat airline competition. Avelo’s decision to shut down its base at Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) draws to a close its incursion into the West Coast market, and the airline will wind down service there over the span of a few months, leaving several popular cities on the West Coast without service from the low-cost airline.

Impact on Travelers and Affected Cities

The loss of Avelo’s presence on the West Coast will create a loss of flight options for some in several cities. Nowhere will service cancellations be felt more keenly than at airports served only be a handful of these planes — such as Redmond, Ore., and Sonoma County, Calif. It will end service it had offered from Burbank, Calif., and the surrounding area, chopping routes connecting that city to several major cities in its home state of California, as well as the Oregon, Nevada, Montana and Washington (state) markets. The Orlando-Redmond route will operate for the final time on August 10, 2025 and the Burbank-Redmond flight early December 2025.

Santa Rosa, Arcata, Eugene, Salem, and Kalispell are some of the destinations affected. Those planning to privately visit and have depended on Avelo’s cost effective routes to those cities will now have to find other carriers to get them there or adjust their plans. The loss of those routes also is a setback in the trend of budget travelers increasingly relying on regional airlines to reach smaller, less crowded airports where major carriers are offering flights at a premium.

Indeed, for citizens and visitors of these towns, the vanishing of cheap airfare options will be a gut punch, particularly for those who had become accustomed to using Avelo’s routes to travel to see family, do business, or vacation in the areas. As more West Coast tourists may now travel to Hawaii by sea and there are also fears of fallout for local economies as fewer tourists arrive by air, hurting not just travel but spending in those areas.

Avelo’s West Coast Exit Timeline

Avelo’s West Coast operation will be phased out from August 10, 2025. The company’s final flights from Redmond to Sonoma County and Las Vegas are scheduled for Aug. 10 and 11. After that, Burbank flights will be reduced, with the final Burbank service scheduled for early December. When December 2025 finally rolls around, Avelo will have exited the region, essentially disbanding its West Coast hub.

Avelo will continue to fly from other airports, such as those in Florida, Texas and the Northeast, but its departure from the West Coast is a big change for the airline. The move follows years of battling to make inroads in one of America’s most competitive aviation markets.

Financial Struggles and Competitive Pressures

For Avelo Airlines, which entered the West Coast in 2021 with big aspirations of offering a no-frills, option for people fed-up with bigger airlines, the region’s competitive landscape has presented formidable obstacles. But Avelo, despite these dreams, has run into never-ending financial problems on its West Coast routes. The airline was able to penetrate some markets, but has failed to generate lasting profits.

Avelo’s West Coast routes, which in particular link to California, Oregon and Washington, have not met expectations. Challenges including higher-than-forecast operating costs, fuel price volatility and cutthroat competition with larger carriers have made it difficult for Avelo to price competitive fares. But big, already established airlines like Alaska Airlines, Delta and Southwest Airlines have a strong hold on the region, so it’s harder for smaller providers to carve out a viable niche.

While the airline made some modifications during those years to its network and operations such as adding new direct routes and tweaking ticket pricing, those were not enough to offset the financial pressures Avelo faces. So instead, the airline has decided to consolidate its flights and focus on more profitable places.

Avelo’s departure from the West Coast is a reminder of the struggles that smaller regional carriers encounter in trying to take on the much larger, legacy carriers that continue to dominate commercial air travel in the United States. While Avelo certainly isn’t the only airline to scale back its operations in some parts of the country, its decision here presents a reminder of how much of a grind it has been for many airlines still trying to reconcile low fares with high costs of doing business.

The Role of Political Controversy

Some media reports have suggested that Avelo’s pull back from the West Coast could be in some way informed by political fallout related to the fact that it also flies deportation missions for the US government. Activists have been demonstrating against Avelo’s involvement in facilitating the flights, particularly after it emerged that the airline had a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to carry deportees.

But protests aside, Avelo remained firm in its messaging, stating that it did not base its decision to stop serving the West Coast upon political stunt. The carrier has said that its departure is purely a result of its routes underperforming in the region financially. The Avelo representative stressed that business decisions were based on financial measures and market conditions, not external political considerations.

What It Means on the West Coast and Beyond

For the West Coast, Avelo’s exit is just the latest example of a low cost carrier that had tried and failed to offer travelers cheap and convenient air service. But the airline’s departure could mean opportunity for other airlines to come in and patch the discounts left by its departure. Bigger airlines like Southwest and Alaska Airlines could pick up some slack, but it’s uncertain if they will offer the kind of budget-friendly fares Avelo did.

More broadly, Avelo’s decision could be an indication of shifting airline industry dynamics. In recent years, the emphasis on low-cost flying has spawned the success of carriers like Avelo and Spirit Airlines. But in an era of increasing competition and rising operating costs, who knows how smaller airlines will remain profitable. Avelo’s West Coast retrenchment could be another sign that the aviation industry is moving back toward more traditional, legacy carriers as it copes with changing economic realities.

Looking Ahead: Avelo’s Future

Avelo Airlines is not abandoning the U.S. market altogether. The airline currently serves other parts of the country, including the East Coast and the Southern United States, where it has enjoyed better success. Going forward, Avelo will concentrate on growing its network in these areas, including potential new routes into cities with less competition and greater demand for low cost travel.

Although its West Coast home is shutting down, Avelo is still determined to offer valued, reliable air travel options for American consumers. The airline’s longer term plan will probably include course-correcting its route network and operations to support its financial objectives. In the constantly changing world of aviation, Avelo will now make this pivot toward markets that provide the most value and highest profit potential.

Over the next several months, Avelo will maintain a watching brief on market conditions and tweak its route network accordingly. “What matters is how well an airline can adapt and adjust its strategy going forward, and Virgin has a pretty unique opportunity to do so.“Even if it comes at a cost, Virgin’s ability to realign its business and its strategy may ultimately determine its fate.”

Conclusion

Avelo Airlines pulling the plug on its West Coast operations represents the end of the road for an ambitious attempt by the low-fare airline operator to gain a foothold in an intensely competitive marketplace. The grounded flights to Santa Rosa, Eugene, Kalispell and elsewhere mark a dramatic change in Avelo’s approach, as the airline grapples with financial difficulties and aggressive competition. Travelers in the impacted markets will have to look for other airlines as they plan future trips because Avelo is heading to more lucrative markets in the rest of the U.S. The move by the airline underscores the struggles that regional carriers continue to face and their ability to survive in a highly complex and competitive aviation environment.

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