Avflight to Stop Servicing ICE Deportation Flights at Akron-Canton Airport on November 30

Avflight will stop providing ground-handling services for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights at Akron-Canton Airport on November 30, 2026, ending the flights there, airport officials said on October 28. Yahoo published the account, which originally appeared in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Avflight's Notice to AEG Fuels

Avflight, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is the private contractor handling the deportation flights at Akron-Canton Airport, a publicly owned regional airport in Northeast Ohio. The airport's vice president, Lisa Dalpiaz, said Avflight notified the ICE flight operator, AEG Fuels, of its decision to discontinue ground handling at the airport effective November 30, 2026.

"Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) has been made aware that Avflight has notified the ICE flight operator, AEG Fuels, of its decision to discontinue providing ground-handling services at CAK effective November 30, 2026. ICE flights will cease from CAK beyond that date," Dalpiaz said in an email on October 28.

Avflight and AEG Fuels, based in Miami, did not respond immediately to questions. Avflight is a major operator at the airport, with additional hangars on the east side servicing dozens of private planes daily.

For nearly six months, prison buses arrived almost daily at the Avflight hangars on West Airport Drive to transfer detainees to Eastern Air Express, Air Wisconsin and Global X jets, usually headed to Alexandria, Louisiana. The flights drew protesters holding signs including "Ice out" and "Stop ICE flights."

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. Flights were expected to return there when the work was completed in August, but that did not happen until a September 29 collision of two Eastern Air Express planes outside the Avflight facility at Akron-Canton. The tip of one wing scraped a stabilizer wing on the rear of the other, and both planes were sidelined for inspection and repairs.

For two weeks, deportation flights were moved to Youngstown Warren until both 737s were repaired and removed from Akron-Canton. On the day before President Donald Trump was to arrive at Youngstown Warren for a campaign rally on October 12, planes and daily flights were transferred from Youngstown Warren to Akron-Canton. Since then, at least 20 Eastern Air Express Boeing 737s and Air Wisconsin CRJ200s have landed at the airport in the city of Green, according to the flight-tracking application FlightAware.

Landing Fees and the Airport's Long-Term Plans

Akron-Canton officials learned that the bills for landing fees sent to the three charter companies will not be paid. The airport had accumulated more than $46,000 in landing fees through September. 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. Airport officials said the loss is insignificant.

Officials said that as a public agency partly funded by the federal government, the airport cannot obstruct any legal business activity that fits with the airport's purposes. They said they had no intention of trying to convince deportation contractors to stay because the activity did not fit their long-term business model.

According to akta.pro company records, Akron-Canton Airport sits on 2,700 acres with two intersecting runways and a 24-hour tower, and its terminal building is 252,131 square feet. The airport has committed over $100 million of capital improvements over the past decade, including a runway extension, gate modernization, a new 41,600 sq ft two-level concourse, covered parking and an upgraded entrance road. In June 2026 it opened the Economy Lot, its most affordable parking product at $11 per day with a complimentary shuttle.

November 30 End Date for ICE Flights

Avflight's notice sets November 30, 2026, as the date its ground-handling services at Akron-Canton Airport end. Dalpiaz said ICE flights will cease from the airport beyond that date.