The most controversial airline doing business at Cherry Capital Airport (TVC) is suspending its service there – for this year, at least. TVC CEO Kevin Klein announced at a meeting of the Northwest Regional Airport Authority Board this week that Avelo Airlines won’t be flying in or out of Traverse City in 2026, bringing TVC’s carrier count from seven to six. The news comes on the heels of TVC’s biggest year ever in 2025, which saw the airport serve nearly 936,000 passengers.

Though not TVC’s newest carrier – that title belongs to JetBlue, which launched service last January – Avelo is the airport’s smallest airline, according to Autumn MacClaren, director of air service development and marketing. After coming aboard at TVC in June 2024 to provide nonstop service to and from Tweed-New Haven Airport in Connecticut, Avelo went on to represent about 0.3 percent of the airport’s bottom line for that year. The airline was “a little larger” in 2025, but still accounted for only “about 0.4 percent of the market,” MacClaren says.

Avelo’s New Haven flight has always been seasonal, and was slated to return in June, according to MacClaren. Those plans have now been scuppered, a change MacClaren says is “part of [Avelo’s] efforts to simplifying their network.” TVC is one of 22 airports nationwide where the airline is “suspending schedules for the upcoming summer.” Despite the departure, McClaren tells The Ticker that Avelo is planning to resume service at TVC “in the summer of 2027.”

“We’ve spoken with Avelo’s network planning team, and they emphasized that TVC remains an important part of their long-term network strategy,” MacClaren says. “As part of a fleet transition, they are removing most of their smaller Boeing 737-700 NG aircraft, leaving them to operate primarily 737-800 jets for the time being.”

The 737-700 typically seats 126-149 passengers, while the 737-800 can accommodate 162-189 passengers.

The 737-800 “is just too large of an aircraft for this market,” MacClaren notes – hence the pause in service to/from TVC. But Avelo also recently placed an order for dozens of Embraer E195-E2 aircraft, a jet class that seats 150 people. “That airplane is the right balance of capacity and efficiency to maximize profitability in this market,” MacClaren continues. “So, once Avelo takes possession of those Embraers, that’s when the airline will return to TVC.”

Fleet reorientation is just one piece of upheaval happening at Avelo. News broke in January that the airline was terminating a contract with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which it teamed up with last year to fly deportation flights. The collaboration trigged backlash against Avelo nationwide – including here in Traverse City, where the Traverse and Leelanau Indivisible groups organized protests. Dropping the contract led to a reorganization at Avelo, including a total closure of the airline’s Mesa, Arizona base, which served as the hub for most of its deportation flights.

Asked about the backlash against ICE and its partners, MacClaren acknowledges the local protests but says Avelo never flew any ICE-related flights into or out of TVC.

As for the impact losing a carrier could have on the airport going forward, MacClaren reiterates what Klein told The Ticker last summer, which is that the Avelo New Haven flight was “a great connecting point for growing our East Coast market.”

“It's always disappointing to see the loss of a route, but we are really looking forward to that flight returning in 2026, and we think Avelo’s new network strategy will ultimately prove to be more beneficial for northern Michigan overall,” MacClaren says. “Fortunately, our other airlines are returning with their connectivity to the East Coast, including non-stop service to Boston from JetBlue, American, and Delta; American serving Philadelphia; direct flights to Washington, D.C. from American and United; and a flight to Charlotte with American. We’re seeing a little bit of an increase in seats with a lot of those carriers, so we actually anticipate being at or maybe even just a little bit above the East Coast connectivity that we had last summer.”