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The US Courthouse is pictured in Seattle, Washington, on February 6, 2025. Photo: AFP/Jason Redmond
The Trump administration has begun using military aircraft to underscore its determination to deport undocumented migrants.
But while the optics make for good political theatre, the flights are expensive -- as much as $1 million in the case of a recent deportation to India, according to an AFP analysis.
In fact military flights can end up costing more than three times as much as a civilian trip, data shows.
President Donald Trump was elected on a promise to carry out the biggest deportation "in the history of America." While most of the migrants being targeted for expulsion come from Latin America, some are also being sent back much further across the globe.
On Wednesday, a US Air Force cargo plane landed in Amritsar, India, carrying 104 Indian nationals who had entered the United States illegally, according to a US government statement.
The flight is believed to be the first use of a military aircraft to deport people to India.
Images captured by an AFP photographer show that the plane used is a C-17A Globemaster III, a large military aircraft capable of transporting troops, vehicles and supplies.
The Globemaster is a workhorse of the US Air Force, and has been used in military theatres worldwide since it was first added to the fleet in 1995.
But military flights are much more costly to operate than the charter flights that are also used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportations.
According to information released by ICE in 2021, the cost of a charter flight is $8,577 per flight hour, although flights transporting high-risk migrants may cost more.
The use of C-17 aircraft in transport operations is charged at $28,562 per hour, according to documents published by US Air Mobility Command.
Military flights also take flight paths that are different to commercial aircraft, due to the sensitivity of operating in the airspace of another sovereign nation.
They also generally refuel at military air bases instead of commercial hubs.
Data from flight tracking site Flightradar24 shows that the deportation flight took off from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, at around 1330 GMT on Monday.
It then flew west to Hawaii, crossed the Pacific to the Luzon Strait near the Philippines, flew between Indonesia and Malaysia, then took a large detour south into the Indian Ocean where there is a US air base located on the tiny island of Diego Garcia.
From there it flew thousands of miles (kilometers) north to India, landing at an airport in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab on Wednesday afternoon local time -- more than 43 hours after takeoff from California.
Accounting for the return journey to a US air base, the flight cost is likely to be more than $1 million even by the most conservative estimates of time spent airborne, equating to more than $10,000 per detainee.
By comparison, a one-way ticket from San Francisco to New Delhi on an American commercial airline can be bought for around $500, or $4,000 in business class.
The Trump administration has begun using military aircraft to underscore its determination to deport undocumented migrants.
But while the optics make for good political theatre, the flights are expensive -- as much as $1 million in the case of a recent deportation to India, according to an AFP analysis.
In fact military flights can end up costing more than three times as much as a civilian trip, data shows.
President Donald Trump was elected on a promise to carry out the biggest deportation "in the history of America." While most of the migrants being targeted for expulsion come from Latin America, some are also being sent back much further across the globe.
On Wednesday, a US Air Force cargo plane landed in Amritsar, India, carrying 104 Indian nationals who had entered the United States illegally, according to a US government statement.
The flight is believed to be the first use of a military aircraft to deport people to India.
Images captured by an AFP photographer show that the plane used is a C-17A Globemaster III, a large military aircraft capable of transporting troops, vehicles and supplies.
The Globemaster is a workhorse of the US Air Force, and has been used in military theatres worldwide since it was first added to the fleet in 1995.
But military flights are much more costly to operate than the charter flights that are also used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportations.
According to information released by ICE in 2021, the cost of a charter flight is $8,577 per flight hour, although flights transporting high-risk migrants may cost more.
The use of C-17 aircraft in transport operations is charged at $28,562 per hour, according to documents published by US Air Mobility Command.
Military flights also take flight paths that are different to commercial aircraft, due to the sensitivity of operating in the airspace of another sovereign nation.
They also generally refuel at military air bases instead of commercial hubs.
Data from flight tracking site Flightradar24 shows that the deportation flight took off from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, at around 1330 GMT on Monday.
It then flew west to Hawaii, crossed the Pacific to the Luzon Strait near the Philippines, flew between Indonesia and Malaysia, then took a large detour south into the Indian Ocean where there is a US air base located on the tiny island of Diego Garcia.
From there it flew thousands of miles (kilometers) north to India, landing at an airport in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab on Wednesday afternoon local time -- more than 43 hours after takeoff from California.
Accounting for the return journey to a US air base, the flight cost is likely to be more than $1 million even by the most conservative estimates of time spent airborne, equating to more than $10,000 per detainee.
By comparison, a one-way ticket from San Francisco to New Delhi on an American commercial airline can be bought for around $500, or $4,000 in business class.