DHS Spent $464 Million on 10 Deportation Aircraft That Have Barely Flown Due to Staffing Shortages
DHS paid $464 million to Daedalus Aviation for 10 ICE Air deportation aircraft that have sat largely grounded since delivery due to a shortage of qualified pilots, flight attendants and security staff.
Original report
simpleflying.com
Industry impact
Owning a dedicated fleet does not remove dependence on outside crewing capacity, so agencies that skip building their own staffing pipeline can end up paying both ownership and outsourced-labor costs at once.
What happened
The Department of Homeland Security paid $464 million to Daedalus Aviation for a fleet of 10 aircraft branded as 'ICE Air,' intended for Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights, but the planes have remained largely grounded since delivery.
The fleet consists of seven Boeing 737-700s formerly operated by [Avelo Airlines](/entities/a9b473d284a45b4aa6ad0b7a1f93824a) and configured with 149 seats each, one Boeing 737 MAX 8 BBJ, and two Gulfstream business jets — one G650 and one G650ER. Most of the 737-700s were delivered earlier in 2026. DHS has also been attempting to lease the two Gulfstreams to other government agencies. As of now, five of the aircraft are undergoing maintenance, while the remaining two are expected to begin deportation flights later in August 2026.
The primary reason the fleet has not operated at scale is a lack of qualified pilots, flight attendants, and security personnel. DHS, which initially intended to operate the flights itself, is now seeking private contractors to staff and operate the aircraft. ICE has traditionally used chartered aircraft from operators including [GlobalX](/entities/522c401c489f53219a11f933dd726f7b), Eastern Air Express, and Omni Air International, at an average cost of $8,577 per hour according to ICE. The purchase was initiated under former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who was fired in March 2026, and has continued under her successor Markwayne Mullin. The full ICE Air fleet is not expected to be operational until July 2027. Major maintenance overhauls on a 737 can exceed one million dollars, and DHS is also incurring storage costs for the grounded planes. John Sandweg, former acting Director of ICE under the Obama Administration, told The New York Times that buying its own fleet would not have been on a list of things ICE needed to do to increase deportations.
Industry impact & what to watch
This case shows that acquiring aircraft and acquiring the operating capability to fly them are separate problems, and buying hardware does not solve a staffing shortfall. DHS now bears the full capital and maintenance cost of ownership while still paying for outsourced crews, largely repeating the cost structure of the charter model it was trying to replace.
Charter arrangements exist precisely because they let an operator supply crewed, insured, maintained capacity on demand without the buyer carrying fixed costs during idle periods; DHS's move to in-house ownership removed that flexibility without first securing the pilots, flight attendants and security personnel needed to use it. With the fleet not expected to be fully operational until July 2027, aircraft delivered in 2026 face over a year of limited use while accruing maintenance and storage costs.
Congressional scrutiny of the fleet's cost and utilization, and whether DHS succeeds in contracting private crews or leasing out the Gulfstreams, will determine whether the arrangement narrows the gap with the $8,577-per-hour charter benchmark or simply adds ownership costs on top of it.
Who this affects
- Business Charter Operators — A government fleet purchase stalling on crew shortages underscores that chartered capacity with ready crews retains a value proposition over owned aircraft sitting idle.
- Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) — A grounded fleet needing 737 overhauls that can exceed one million dollars each points to near-term heavy maintenance demand tied to its return to service.
- Aviation Insurance Companies — Aircraft sitting grounded for an extended period rather than flying regularly changes the exposure profile underwriters assess for hull coverage.
The underlying facts come from the originating publisher (linked above). The narrative, industry-impact assessment and per-role analysis below are produced independently by the AVI-GO intelligence team from public information. Cite as: AVI-GO, "DHS Spent $464 Million on 10 Deportation Aircraft That Have Barely Flown Due to Staffing Shortages" news brief, 2026-08-24.
How to cite
AVI-GO, “DHS Spent $464 Million on 10 Deportation Aircraft That Have Barely Flown Due to Staffing Shortages”. https://ai.avi-go.com/news/ai-news-center/news-briefs/dhs-spent-464-million-on-10-deportation-aircraft-that-have-barely-flow-a07e180fe5414855c41ca24fa3d93062
Figures carry an explicit measurement window — cite the window shown on this page, not the date you retrieved it.