Deportation flights operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Akron-Canton Airport are set to conclude at the end of the month. Airport officials announced on Wednesday that the private contractor responsible for ground handling services at the facility has decided to stop servicing these flights effective November 30, 2026.
For approximately six months, prison buses have transported detainees to the Avflight hangars on West Airport Drive almost every day. These detainees were then transferred to jets operated by Eastern Air Express, Air Wisconsin, and Global X. The flights typically headed to Alexandria, Louisiana, a location that serves as a primary hub for international deportations due to a major immigration detention facility.
The presence of these flights has attracted regular protests at the airport. Demonstrators have held signs with messages such as “ICE out,” “Immigrants are welcome here,” and “Stop ICE flights,” highlighting the community’s reaction to the increased air traffic.
Airport Vice President Lisa Dalpiaz confirmed the change in an email, stating that Avflight, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, notified AEG Fuels, the Miami-based private contractor managing the ICE flights, of its decision to discontinue ground-handling services at Akron-Canton. Dalpiaz noted that ICE flights will cease from the airport after that date. Neither Avflight nor AEG Fuels responded immediately to inquiries regarding the decision.
Avflight remains a significant operator at Akron-Canton, with additional hangars on the east side of the airport that service dozens of private planes daily. The deportation operations began at the end of April when Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport closed part of its longest runway for repairs. Although flights were expected to return to Youngstown-Warren in August, a collision between two Eastern Air Express planes outside the Avflight facility on September 29 delayed that transition.
In the collision, the tip of one wing scraped a stabilizer wing on the rear of the other, forcing both aircraft to be sidelined for inspection and repairs. For two weeks, deportation flights moved to Youngstown-Warren. However, just before President Donald Trump arrived at Youngstown-Warren for a campaign rally on October 12, the planes and daily flights were transferred back to Akron-Canton.
Since that transfer, flight-tracking data from FlightAware indicates that at least 20 Eastern Air Express Boeing 737s and Air Wisconsin CRJ200s have landed in the city of Green. The Western Reserve Port Authority, which manages Youngstown-Warren, stated it was not aware of the recent developments at Akron-Canton and referred questions to its previous private operator, JetsFBO, which has not responded to recent contact attempts.
Acron-Canton officials also learned that the three charter companies involved will not pay the airport’s landing fees. The airport had accumulated more than $46,000 in such fees through September. A Federal Aviation Administration memo released in early 2026 indicated that private contractors working for the government are not required to pay these charges. Airport officials described the financial loss as insignificant.
The Akron-Canton Regional Airport Authority has been the primary source of information since news coverage began in July. Officials explained that as a public agency partly funded by the federal government, the airport cannot obstruct legal business activities that align with its purposes. However, they noted they had no intention of persuading the deportation contractors to remain, as the arrangement did not fit the airport’s long-term business model.
