Regular line flights are used for many deportations. Almost all major commercial airlines are involved in this. In January 2019 Frontex concluded a €30 million contract with Polish company eTravel to provide “booking and ticketing services for the EU Member States who will organize return operations by scheduled flights with Frontex support”.
Other deportations happen by specially chartered airplanes. Frontex plays an increasingly important part in this, stimulating and coordinating joint deportations, where people coming from several EU member states are deported together. The report ‘Deportation Union‘ (2020) from Statewatch investigates the role of Frontex.
In April 2020 Frontex awarded four contracts for the ‘Short Notice Chartering of Aircraft for Frontex Operational Activities’ (“mainly for organising emergency return flights”) to the companies Air Charter Service (Germany), AS Aircontact (Norway), Air Partner International (Austria) and Professional Aviation Solutions (Germany).