It sounds like Trump wants to get back into the airline business, though this time, with a different kind of “Trump Shuttle.”
In this post:
ICE may buy its own fleet of planes for deportations
For years, the United States has contracted out to airlines for operating deportation flights. Airlines currently performing these flights include Avelo Air, Eastern Air Express, GlobalX Air, Omni Air International, and World Atlantic Airlines. This is a lucrative arrangement for those airlines, and also gives them a steady income stream.
The Trump administration is of course trying to greatly increase the number of deportations. Trump has vowed to deport one million undocumented immigrations per year, and in his first six months in office, ICE deported somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 undocumented immigrants, including voluntary self-departures.
This means that if Trump wants to reach that “goal,” the administration needs to greatly step up its number of deportations. On that note, NBC News is reporting that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to own and operate its own fleet of airplanes for deportations, with the goal of doubling the number of people that can be deported each month.
Currently, ICE charters 8-14 planes at a time for deportation flights, which allows for roughly 15,000 deportations per month. So if “ICE Air” had its own fleet of 30 or more planes, ICE wouldn’t be constrained by the limits of the companies it contracts with. As ICE increases the number of people it detains, more deportation flights are needed to avoid overcrowding in detention centers.
Of course buying aircraft requires a big investment, though Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” greatly increased funding for ICE. The bill gave ICE over $75 billion in funding, including $30 billion for deportation efforts, greatly increasing the previous $9.5 billion annual budget.
It’s suggested that the average deportation flight costs around $25,000 per hour, including the cost of the plane, pilots, flight attendants, security personnel, andmedical personnel. So the average deportation trip cost is somewhere around $100,000 to $200,000.
Should the government start its own deportation airline?
There’s no point in debating Trump’s deportation efforts, because we all have our own (typically strong) opinions on that, and I don’t think anyone is going to have their opinions changed in the comments section. So let’s stick to the aviation angle.
With that in mind, if the government is going to deport people, is it more beneficial to outsource the flying, or for the government to actually get into the “airline” business? A few thoughts…
First, is the bottleneck in deportation efforts really a lack of available aircraft that can be contracted? I’m kind of surprised to hear that, since you’d think that carriers like Avelo Air have a bit of spare capacity. For that matter, this just about seems like Spirit Airlines’ best bet at improving margins. I just struggle to imagine that the government is unable to contract more planes, given what a tough industry it is.
Second, I really question whether there’s added efficiency for the government operating aircraft directly. Airlines are generally pretty efficient businesses, and it’s not like the margins they’re skimming on these charters are huge. I have to imagine that if the government gets involved there would be some loss in efficiency.
For that matter, by using charter operators, it’s easy enough to adjust capacity over time, to reflect demand, which is much harder to do if you actually buy planes. If we’re to believe that the undocumented immigration situation will change materially, and if our “borders are now closed,” then presumably at some point there would also be a decrease in the number of people who the government needs to deport?
Bottom line
The Trump administration is reportedly considering bringing deportation flights in-house, by acquiring aircraft in order to ramp up deportation efforts. Currently, the government charters planes from airlines, but with increased funding for ICE, the plan is for the government to maybe instead fly its own planes.
I’m not sure I really see huge efficiency gains here, since I question how much cheaper the government could run this operation. If this is really about not being able to get enough planes chartered from airlines, well, then I’d be a bit surprised.
What do you make of the ICE Air concept?
They have one! The USAF has hundreds of planes capable of carrying illegals out of the country.
In other news, Alligator Alley has been turned into a crew base for ICE Air.
Alligator Alcatraz that is....
Efficiency and effectiveness are never the primary goal of government policies. No well thought- out ideas are implemented before being executed because the inept leaders are in charge. First, it cost up to $1M to fly one r/w trip in military airplane. Then, chartering private planes is not expedited and secretive enough. Now, with its own fleet, it can operate in the shadow with no judicial oversight. Having Stephen Miller, who looks like a thug,...
Efficiency and effectiveness are never the primary goal of government policies. No well thought- out ideas are implemented before being executed because the inept leaders are in charge. First, it cost up to $1M to fly one r/w trip in military airplane. Then, chartering private planes is not expedited and secretive enough. Now, with its own fleet, it can operate in the shadow with no judicial oversight. Having Stephen Miller, who looks like a thug, as the top commander who breathes, eats and sleeps to deport 1M undocumented immigrants, there is no spare resource to pay for social, medical and educational expenses. It costs $1M daily to park national guards and military personnel in Washington D.C-- to achieve what meaningful goal? Why not finance the operational overhead costs of the VA --those who sacrifice their lives and future for the country?
Kristi Noem wants 50 million for a new Gulfstream (carved out of the coast guard budget) . I suspect it will be Ice Force One.
Will they also launch a frequent flyer programme? If I get deported frequently will I get bonus miles, upgrades and other benefits? Fast track might not be a benefit in this programme .
Best comment in a while
Wouldn't it just be easier for an airline to pay Trump a huge bribe, then in return, the US government just start outsourcing all charters to them? That's how it worked for Paramount, Intel, Harvard, Columbia, etc. And this hasn't caused any issues nor did anybody have a problem with it.
They could start with moving all the MAGA supporters to the concentration camps. Orangecankles McTaco face’s Fourth Reich
Well they can lease the Global Airlines A380 and various other availabed for lease A380s so they can move more people an din comfort
I guess there's no "return" fares.
And since the planes return empty, maybe they can move some cargo to recoup some of the cost.
Oh these costs are an investment and the ROI is exponential.
They were looking to contract with spirit, but it was ruled cruel and unusual punishment.
If they really want to get tough with deportees, they should contract with Ryanair.
or TAAG first class? :-)
Perhaps the government feels the need to do this "in house" to avoid the vicious and unacceptable attacks made against the charter companies and their employees earlier this year. The US Government employs plenty of pilots already, adding more isn't that difficult.
If they use big 777s they can move more people per flight. They can configure these aircraft to suit the mission. No need for business or premium economy.
"...the vicious and unacceptable attacks..." Did spittle fly out of your mouth when you wrote that?
Love the hyperbole; thank you, Stephen Miller ghoul.
If we replace "vicious and unacceptable attacks made against" with "reputational damage to" then we might get consensus that the point is valid.
It was the prospect of such reputational damage that caused all European charter airlines to pull out of acting for the previous UK government in its plans to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda.
It's worth noting that the US government (US Marshals specifically) already has an airline called JPATS to transport prisoners domestically:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_Prisoner_and_Alien_Transportation_System
A big difference between JPATS vs. ICE Air is that the passengers on the former have generally had their constitutional due process rights respected
And Nicolas Cage...
One would think they could use these planes too. Although the JPATS planes stay relatively busy they definitely don’t fly 16-20 hours a day like most airlines use theirs.
I note that the name doesn't have any qualified on "Alien".
So the airline is for all Aliens, i.e. non-citizens in the USA?
Waiting for the TPG "cabin shootout" style review of everything from Econ thru First. I heard if you upgrade to Premium Econ with Trump Miles they don't pistol whip you as aggressively during boarding.