Trump Admin's Use Of Military Flights To Deport Migrants Is Much More Expensive Than Civilian Planes, Report Shows

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

3. yes and no

Flying military aircraft is basically always more expensive then a civilian aircraft. They aren't the most fuel efficient and require far more maintenance.

But many of those aircraft used in the flights were going to be flying anyway. Military pilots, like all pilots, are required to have a minimum number of flight hours per year to maintain their qualification on whatever airframes they fly. Whether those flight hours come from flying random training routes over the US, doing a flyover at a sports game or event, or flying migrants back, is irrelevant. Unless they are training for a specific operation type or skill(like mid air refueling or assault landings and takeoffs), flight hours are flight hours regardless of where they are flying. So, in theory, some of these flights could have actually saved money since they were basically training flights for the crew.