NORTH CANTON — Charter companies providing ICE deportation flights owe a combined $46,513 in landing fees at Ohio’s Akron-Canton Regional Airport, according to public invoices described by the Ohio Capital Journal in a report updated this week.
Eastern Airlines, Global X and Air Wisconsin were billed for 148 landings since the end of April, with $33,927 of the total past due for May, June and July. Through Sept. 17, the number of landings had reached 167 after ICE moved the flights from Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, where the longest runway was partly closed for repairs. The airport’s vice president said the charter companies had not contacted the airport about the unpaid fees.
The report describes planes arriving in the evening, often from an ICE detention and deportation center in Alexandria, Louisiana, and sometimes directly from Tapachula, Mexico. Flight tracking records can show routes and arrivals, but the flight information does not identify the immigration or criminal history of people on board, nor does a landing by itself establish that every person on a plane was being deported from Ohio.
The count did not include a long period around Labor Day weekend that may have been the busiest stretch so far.
The airport shift came after Youngstown-Warren’s runway work limited operations there, funneling the charter traffic to Akron-Canton. Airport officials continue to press for payment of the overdue invoices.