Avelo Airlines (XP, Burbank) has hired American investment bank Jefferies Group LLC to help it raise up to USD100 million, according to a report from The Airline Observer.

The report states that USD50 million will be used for growth, the rest to improve the company’s finances, including reducing its leverage. Chief executive Andrew Levy said that Avelo could be looking at raising the money in two separate tranches. The first would be for short-term liquidity, and the second would seek between USD75 million and USD100 million.

According to data from the US Department of Transportation (DOT), Avelo Airlines earned USD2.3 million net profit in the first half of 2024 but had a total debt of USD45 million. Its passenger load factor was 73.7%, second-lowest among all 12 system passenger national carriers, above only Silver Airways (currently under Chapter 11 reorganisation), which had 51.9%. Data for the third and fourth quarters were not available at the time of writing this article.

Avelo Airlines recently expanded its business model, launching international flights in late 2024 and signing an agreement with the US Department of Homeland Security in April 2025 to carry out deportation flights, ch-aviation reported.

ch-aviation reached out to Avelo Airlines for comment but it was not immediately available.