In August 2024, private plane charter company Omni Air International announced a partnership with the NFL’s New England Patriots via a press release, a long-term agreement by which Omni would operate the team’s two custom-decorated Boeing 767-300s for “team travel and other charter flights including humanitarian and goodwill flights on behalf of the Kraft family, and as available for Omni’s other charter customers.” One of the planes, with tail number N36NE, was singled out in the announcement as particularly “attractive” to customers due to its custom seating arrangement, which includes 80 business-class seats.
Maybe that’s what set it apart for whoever was on board on Monday, when flight records show that the plane made a trip from Fort Worth, Texas, to Guantánamo Bay, and a return flight the same day from Gitmo to Texas’s Fort Bliss.
The Pats use the planes for team travel during the NFL’s season, and have been public about past non-athletic uses of the plane, like the 2020 trip to pick up 1.5 million N95 masks from China amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and the 2021 use of one of the aircraft to ferry vaccinated healthcare workers to watch the team play in the Super Bowl, a trip gifted both from gratitude and to raise awareness of the importance of Covid vaccines.
There are only so many reasons to go to Guantánamo Bay, and lately, pretty much all of them have to do with ICE and Donald Trump’s gung-ho deportation push. At a congressional hearing earlier this month, it was revealed that about 400 migrants have been held (non-simultaneously) at the U.S. Navy base over the past two months, an endeavor that has cost more than $40 million in taxpayer funds.
Patriots spokesperson Anisha Chakrabarti, contacted by Vanity Fair, denied that the team’s plane had been used for rendition flights transporting migrants.
“The New England Patriots plane was not used for any kind of deportation flight and there were no detainees on the plane,” Chakrabarti said via email. “Under our current charter manager, neither of the Patriots planes have ever been used for that purpose.”
When the team isn’t using the planes, the charter company, Omni, manages them.
“The New England Patriots organization is not involved in, nor does it approve, sanction, or coordinate the uses of the aircrafts when they are chartered for non-team purposes,” Chakrabarti’s statement continued. “The charter company uses the Patriots planes as part of their inventory when chartering to the Department of Defense to move military personnel as well as other government agencies with no financial gain to the organization.”
The Pats’ planes were previously managed by charter airline Eastern Airlines, a deal that resulted in a lawsuit alleging breach of contract by Eastern. It was under this contract that a 2022 University of Washington Center for Human Rights report revealed that Patriots-owned aircrafts had been used for at least three ICE rendition flights to Honduras.
Kathleen Bergin, an adjunct professor of law at Cornell University, wrote in Fortune in 2021 that migrants on ICE flights have reported being beaten and mistreated, a much different air travel experience from the well-paid athletes who also use the planes.
“Athletes must accept that they are sitting in a seat perhaps last occupied by a migrant bloodied from abuse, or a parent taken from her child,” Bergin wrote. “Celebrities and corporate VIPs who’ve used their public image to promote human rights sacrifice their credibility the moment they board the plane.”
Deputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly told VF via email, “While those assisting with President Trump’s mass deportation of migrant criminals are great patriots, there is no contract with the New England Patriots to facilitate deportations,” she said.
Kym Dixon, a spokesperson for Omni parent company Air Transport Services Group, declined to elaborate on the nature of the flight when contacted by VF. “Due to the potential nature of the missions, we do not confirm flight or contract information,” she said via email.
Omni counts the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security among two of its prominent government clients as part of the so-called “ICE Air” program, and has been named in complaints of abuse of migrant passengers. Omni’s parent company was recently acquired and taken private by Stonepeak in a $3.1 billion deal, but until April 11, 2025, none other than Amazon owned nearly 20% of the parent company.
The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s agency, did not respond to a request for comment.
