Pentagon Orders U.S. Airlines to Help Afghanistan Evacuations

It’s only the third time in history. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the activation of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, a nearly 70-year-old program created in the wake of the Berlin airlift to provide a backup by commercial air carriers for a “major national defense emergency.”  Previously it was used in the early 1990s and early 2000s during the Iraq wars.

“The Department does not anticipate a major impact to commercial flights from this activation,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement. 

The flights would not fly into Afghanistan but instead would be used to transport those who have already been flown out of the country.

Here’s how the Civil Air Reserve Fleet works: the airlines contractually pledge aircraft to the various segments of Civil Reserve Air Fleet, domestic and international, ready for activation when needed. To provide incentives for civil carriers to commit aircraft to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program and to assure the United States of adequate airlift reserves, the government makes peacetime airlift business available to civilian airlines that offer aircraft to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. Department of Defense offers business through the International Airlift Services. According to the latest data, for fiscal year 2005, the guaranteed portion of the contract was $418 million. Air Mobility Command (AMC) previously reported that throughout fiscal 2005 it planned to award more than $1.5 billion in additional business beyond the guaranteed portion of the contract.