The immigration deportation flights that have operated almost daily in recent months from Akron-Canton Airport are coming to an end, after the private contractor handling ground services for the flights said it will stop servicing them at the end of November, airport officials said Oct. 28, according to reporting by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Akron-Canton Airport Vice President Lisa Dalpiaz said in an email Oct. 28 that the airport had been made aware Avflight had notified the ICE flight operator, AEG Fuels, of its decision to discontinue providing ground-handling services at the airport effective Nov. 30, 2026, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. ICE flights will cease from Akron-Canton beyond that date, Dalpiaz said, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
For nearly six months, prison buses have arrived almost daily at the Avflight hangars on West Airport Drive to transfer Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees to Eastern Air Express, Air Wisconsin and Global X jets usually headed to Alexandria, Louisiana, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.
The flights have drawn protesters holding signs including “Ice out,” “Immigrants are welcome here,” and “Stop ICE flights,” according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Avflight, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and AEG Fuels, the private contractor that manages ICE flights and is based in Miami, did not respond immediately to questions, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Avflight is a major operator at the airport, with additional hangars on the east side servicing dozens of private planes daily.
Deportation flights began at Akron-Canton at the end of April, when Youngstown Warren Regional Airport closed a portion of its longest runway and tarmac for repairs, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Flights were expected to return there when work was completed in August, but that did not happen until a Sept. 29 collision of two Eastern Air Express planes outside the Avflight facility at Akron-Canton.
For two weeks after that collision, deportation flights were moved to Youngstown Warren until both 737s were repaired and removed from Akron-Canton, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Planes and daily flights later transferred back to Akron-Canton, and since then at least 20 Eastern Air Express Boeing 737s and Air Wisconsin CRJ200s have landed at the airport in Green, according to the flight-tracking application FlightAware as cited by the Akron Beacon Journal.
The Western Reserve Port Authority, which manages the Youngstown Warren airport, said it was not aware of the Akron-Canton developments and referred questions to the private operator at that airport that serviced ICE flights in the past, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.
The change also carries a financial footnote for the airport. Akron-Canton officials learned that bills for landing fees sent to the three charter companies will not be paid, and the airport had accumulated more than $46,000 in landing fees through September, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a memo released in early 2026 that private contractors working for the government would not be required to pay landing fees, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Immigration enforcement arrangements are also under scrutiny elsewhere in Ohio. In northwest Ohio, a jail board recently voted to keep an ICE detention contract while asking for a closer look: Northwest Ohio jail board keeps ICE detention contract, asks for a closer look.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: What is confirmed, from the airport’s statement reported by the Akron Beacon Journal, is that Avflight will stop ground-handling ICE flights Nov. 30 and that ICE flights will cease from Akron-Canton beyond that date. What remains unanswered is where those flights, if they continue in Ohio, will operate next, and whether Youngstown Warren will resume them.
The airport in Green is primarily a commercial passenger airport for the Akron-Canton region, and the ICE charter operation has run alongside — but separate from — its regular airline service. The distinction matters for travelers: the end of the deportation flights does not change any scheduled commercial route, gate, or parking arrangement at the airport.
What happens next is Nov. 30, the effective date for Avflight’s withdrawal at Akron-Canton. Travelers using the airport for commercial flights are not affected by the change, which concerns only the charter deportation operation on the airport’s west side.
Photo: Ken Lund, CC BY