Ron DeSantis's FDLE Cessna Citation Latitude flies from Georgia to Miami in 59 minutes

Ron DeSantis's aircraft, a 2019 Cessna Citation Latitude registered as N943FL and operated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, flew from Decatur County Industrial Air Park (KBGE) in Bainbridge, Georgia, to Miami International Airport (KMIA) on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. The flight departed at 17:27 UTC and landed at 18:25 UTC, spending 59 minutes in the air. The aircraft covered a great-circle distance of 367 nautical miles (423 miles, 680 km) at an average ground speed of 376 knots, reaching a top speed of 479 knots and a highest altitude of 27,000 feet.

The 367-nautical-mile trip used about 14 percent of the aircraft's 2,700-nautical-mile range. The Cessna Citation Latitude, a super midsize jet with a top speed of Mach 0.80 and a ceiling of 45,000 feet, typically seats eight to nine passengers. Celebplanes estimates the flight burned about 225 US gallons of fuel, producing roughly 2,160 kilograms (2.2 metric tons) of CO2, comparable to driving a car 5,346 miles.

This was the second landing at Miami in the tracked window of 40 flights since October 2, 2026; the previous one was on October 8, 13 days earlier. The aircraft's home base is Tallahassee International Airport (KTLH), and its most common destinations in the window were Tallahassee (17 landings), Pensacola (5 landings), and Pinellas Park (4 landings). Before this flight, the aircraft had been on the ground for about 14 hours after its previous tracked landing at Tallahassee on October 21. Over the 30 days before this flight, N943FL visited 22 airports in one country, flew about 9,196 nautical miles, and logged 40 flights totaling 29.2 hours in the air.

Ron DeSantis was inaugurated as the 46th Governor of Florida on January 8, 2019, and re-elected in 2022 with a 19-point margin. A former U.S. Navy JAG officer and U.S. Representative (2013–2018), DeSantis launched and withdrew from the 2024 Republican presidential primary before endorsing Donald Trump. The state jet attracted significant scrutiny during the 2024 presidential campaign, with open-source flight tracking revealing that the FDLE Citation Latitude was deployed to New Hampshire, Iowa, and other early primary states simultaneously with DeSantis campaign events, raising transparency questions about whether state aviation resources were subsidizing political travel. (clickorlando.com) reported that the FDLE plane was tracked to New Hampshire during a DeSantis campaign appearance, though the FDLE said the flight was for investigations and flight training.

If Ron DeSantis was aboard, the arrival at Miami International Airport on a Wednesday afternoon would fit a pattern of travel concentrated on Florida hubs. The aircraft's usual destinations on file include Miami International Airport, Orlando Executive Airport, Tampa International Airport, and Jacksonville International Airport. The flight from a small Georgia airport like Decatur County Industrial Air Park is an outlier compared to the governor's typical departure points of Tallahassee, Miami, or Orlando.

The flight adds to a record of 40 tracked movements in the past 30 days for the FDLE aircraft, which costs Florida taxpayers approximately $1.2 million annually in financing.