Immigration and Customs Enforcement has locked in another year of chartered deportation flights with CSI Aviation, keeping the ICE Air removal network with a single Texas small business through October 2027. The USAspending record for call order 70CDCR27FC0000001 shows ICE obligated $277,971,276 at signing on Oct. 31, 2026, against a call order whose base-and-all-options value is listed at $1.28 billion. Performance runs from Nov. 1, 2026, to Oct. 31, 2027.
The order went to CSI Aviation, Inc. of Killeen, Texas, through ICE's Detention Compliance and Removals office. It sits under blanket purchase agreement 70CDCR24A00000001, which USAspending classifies as a single-award BPA. The record lists the order as firm fixed price, a commercial services buy, and coded as full and open competition.
What the $278M ICE Air Order Buys
The award description is short and direct. The government's own language says the order "obtains dedicated and on-demand chartered flight services for enforcement and removal operations under the ICE air program." The same description, as reproduced on HigherGov's record of the prior-year call, adds that "ICE air facilitates the safe, secure, and cost-effective transportation and deportation of illegal aliens."
That two-part structure matters for how the money moves. In general, dedicated flights mean aircraft and crews committed to the program, while on-demand flights cover missions ordered as operations require them. Because the new call order carries both, ICE can in principle keep a baseline of capacity while buying surge flights under the same fixed-price vehicle.
USAspending codes the work under product and service code V211, air passenger transportation, and NAICS 561599, all other travel arrangement and reservation services.
How the FY2027 Call Compares With Last Year's $1.6B Order
The new order follows call 70CDCR26FC0000001, which covered Nov. 1, 2025, through Oct. 31, 2026. HigherGov reports that CSI Aviation was awarded that call "worth up to $1,603,055,609" in November 2025, with about $1.3 billion obligated by the time it closed. The prior call was last modified on Sept. 15, 2026.
The prior order also left money on the table. HigherGov's analysis notes state that "This BPA Call is complete with $312,650,794 of funded backlog and $312,650,794 of unfunded backlog unused, which is typically due to unexercised options." In plain terms, roughly $312.7 million of the FY2026 call's value was never drawn down before the period of performance ended.
Read together, the two records show a stated value for the FY2027 call that is lower than the FY2026 call's $1,603,055,609 ceiling, and an opening obligation of $277,971,276, or about 22 percent of the new $1.28 billion value. The opening obligation is a starting point rather than a forecast of total spending: the FY2026 call ended with about $1.3 billion obligated against a ceiling of roughly $1.6 billion.
Who CSI Aviation Is on the ICE Air Contract
USAspending lists CSI Aviation's business categories as small business, veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned. HigherGov records the company's size determination as small business and its place of performance as Killeen, Texas, in the state's 11th congressional district. The awardee's unique entity identifier is D5BNEHB3UL89.
HigherGov's hierarchy places the BPA under the Multiple Award Schedule, federal supply schedule contract GS33F0025V, with the agreement designated GS33F0025V-70CDCR24A00000001. That helps explain a detail in the coding that can look contradictory at first glance: the order is listed as subject to multiple award fair opportunity procedures, even though the ICE agreement itself is a single-award BPA. HigherGov also links the parent award to a related opportunity titled "Charter Flight Services for ICE (RFQ1604261)."
Although USAspending codes the call order as full and open competition, it is placed through a single-award BPA, so it is unlikely to function as a fresh competition each year. CSI Aviation's competitors would probably need the BPA itself to be recompeted, or ICE to set up a separate vehicle, to take a share of the charter work.
Why the Opening Obligation Is Lower Than the Ceiling
The gap between $277,971,276 obligated and a $1.28 billion base-and-all-options value is consistent with how the FY2026 call unfolded. That call started in November 2025 and reached roughly $1.3 billion obligated by its end, according to HigherGov, which implies funding was added after the opening award. Whether the same pattern repeats on the new order is not something the records can confirm yet.
The FY2026 record also shows the limits of that approach. With $312,650,794 in backlog unused at closeout, the agency did not draw the full ceiling it had authorized. Whether the FY2027 call ends closer to its ceiling will depend on removal flight demand, appropriations, and any changes to the mix of dedicated and on-demand missions over the coming year.
What It Means for Contractors
For aviation services firms, the clearest signal is continuity. ICE has again placed a full year of charter removal flights with the incumbent under the existing single-award BPA rather than splitting the work. Firms seeking a piece of this market are more likely to find it as subcontract capacity, aircraft and crew providers working with the prime, than as a direct ICE award in the near term. HigherGov lists zero recorded subcontracts on the FY2026 call, and USAspending shows a subaward count of zero on the new order, which suggests subcontract reporting on this program is thin even if subcontracted aircraft are in use.
Firms tracking the program should watch for modifications to 70CDCR27FC0000001 through the year. Incremental funding actions would show how quickly ICE is drawing against the $1.28 billion value, and a large unused backlog at closeout, as in FY2026, would suggest the ceiling exceeded actual flight demand.
The other date to watch is the next recompete of the underlying BPA. Any new solicitation for charter flight services for ICE would likely be the real opening for competitors, since call orders under a single-award agreement go to the BPA holder. Companies interested in that work should be building teaming relationships and past performance in government air charter now, before a solicitation appears.
For small businesses in particular, the award shows that a service-disabled veteran-owned small business can hold a federal program at this dollar scale through a schedule-based BPA, without a small business set-aside on the order itself. USAspending lists no set-aside type for the call.
