Ron DeSantis's Cessna Citation Latitude Returns to Tallahassee From Orlando in 39 Minutes
Why It MattersRoutine intrastate hops by a state-registered super-midsize jet show how government executive transport, a steady niche of business-jet flying, can be traced through open flight-tracking data.
A Cessna Citation Latitude linked to Ron DeSantis flew from Orlando International Airport to Tallahassee International Airport in 39 minutes, departing Orlando at 18:59 UTC. The aircraft is registered to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and is used for executive transport. The flight covered a great-circle distance of 197 nautical miles (227 miles) at an average ground speed of 305 knots, with a highest altitude of 18,000 feet and a top ground speed of 410 knots. Estimated fuel burn was about 149 US gallons and CO2 emissions roughly 1,429 kg, and the jet used 7% of its range. The departure runway at Orlando is 12,005 feet long and the arrival runway at Tallahassee is 8,000 feet long.
It was the 18th landing at Tallahassee in a tracked window of 40 flights since October 9, 2026, and the previous landing there came on October 28, five days earlier. Tallahassee is the aircraft's home base, and its most common destinations in the window were Tallahassee (17 landings), Pensacola (5) and Pinellas Park (4). Before this flight the aircraft spent about three days on the ground in Orlando, after a previous tracked landing there on October 30.
The Cessna Citation Latitude is a super midsize jet with a range of 2,700 nm, a ceiling of 45,000 feet and a top speed of Mach 0.80 (446 knots). It typically seats eight passengers, up to nine, and uses an estimated 230 US gallons of fuel per hour. DeSantis was inaugurated as the 46th Governor of Florida on January 8, 2019, and re-elected in 2022. The state jet drew scrutiny during the 2024 campaign when open-source flight tracking showed the FDLE Citation Latitude deployed to New Hampshire, Iowa and other early primary states simultaneously with DeSantis campaign events.
