# First Rwanda flight in 10 to 12 weeks

> “The first flight will leave in 10 to 12 weeks.”
>
> — Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister, Conservative Party; Statement on the plan to stop the boats, 22 April 2024

- **Status:** Not met
- **Status ladder:** Promised → In plan → Legislated → Funded → Delivering → Delivered
- **Policy area:** [Police, courts, prisons](https://ledgergov.uk/promises/area/police-courts-and-prisons)
- **Speaker:** [Rishi Sunak](https://ledgergov.uk/actor/rishi-sunak), Prime Minister
- **Party:** [Conservative Party](https://ledgergov.uk/actor/conservatives)
- **Made on:** 22 April 2024
- **Where:** Statement on the plan to stop the boats
- **Deadline:** 15 July 2024
- **Cost a year:** No costing published
- **Who it affects:** People who arrived in the UK illegally and were to be relocated to Rwanda
- **When:** Within 10 to 12 weeks of 22 April 2024
- **Paid for by:** Not stated when it was announced
- **Quote source:** https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-minister-rishi-sunaks-statement-on-the-plan-to-stop-the-boats-22-april-2024 (checked word for word at its source on 20 October 2026; Open Government Licence v3.0)
- **Last updated:** 20 October 2026
- **Card:** https://ledgergov.uk/promise/uk-rwanda-first-flight-2024

## Where it stands

The flight was to take people who had arrived in the UK illegally to Rwanda. Twelve weeks from 22 April 2024 is 15 July 2024. No such flight had left by then: on 22 July 2024 the new Home Secretary told the Commons that the partnership had cost £700 million to send four volunteers, including the cost of chartering flights that never took off, and that the government would end it. The government had changed on 5 July 2024.

## Timeline

- 22 April 2024, Promised: The Prime Minister says the first flight to Rwanda will leave in 10 to 12 weeks
- 15 July 2024, Deadline: First flight due, 12 weeks after the statement
- 22 July 2024, Not met: The Home Secretary tells the Commons that flights to Rwanda never took off and that the partnership will end ([evidence](https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-07-22/debates/FBB2B906-592F-4047-A6E1-59D6DB97573A/BorderSecurityAndAsylum))

## About the cost

No figure in the statement. The Home Secretary told the Commons on 22 July 2024 that the partnership with Rwanda had cost £700 million, including £290 million in payments to Rwanda.

Costing sources:
- [Hansard, House of Commons, 22 Jul 2024: Border Security and Asylum](https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-07-22/debates/FBB2B906-592F-4047-A6E1-59D6DB97573A/BorderSecurityAndAsylum)

## Sources

- [Prime Minister's Office: Rishi Sunak's statement on the plan to stop the boats, 22 April 2024](https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-minister-rishi-sunaks-statement-on-the-plan-to-stop-the-boats-22-april-2024)
- [Hansard, House of Commons, 22 Jul 2024: Border Security and Asylum (Home Secretary's statement)](https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-07-22/debates/FBB2B906-592F-4047-A6E1-59D6DB97573A/BorderSecurityAndAsylum)

## Checks

- Checked automatically by AI Journalist, not yet verified by an editor.
- Checked by AI Journalist (automated) on 20 October 2026.

---

LedgerGov.UK's own writing (headlines, status notes, cost notes, summaries) is licensed under [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse it, crediting LedgerGov.UK with a link to the card. Official figures are under the [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) unless their source says otherwise; quotes from Parliament under the [Open Parliament Licence v3.0](https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright-parliament/open-parliament-licence/); other quotes are short extracts whose rights stay with the speaker. How the numbers and statuses are made: https://ledgergov.uk/method.