US enlists commercial airlines to help move Afghanistan evacuees

WASHINGTON (Reuters): The United States has helped six civilian airlines to help transport people after evacuation from Afghanistan as Washington seeks to accelerate the pace of departures from Kabul to Americans and endangered Afghanistan.  

After landing on a flight from Afghanistan on Sunday, the Pentagon called 18 commercial aircraft from United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, etc. to carry people from a temporary location during the 2003 Iraq War. He said he relied on the last industry he sought.

Thousands of people wanted to evacuate outside Kabul International Airport on Sunday as the Taliban militants defeated the crowd.

“This is a program designed to increase airlift capacity using commercial aircraft in the wake of airlift in Berlin after World War II,” President Joe Biden said from the White House on Sunday afternoon. He added that the airline had voluntarily applied for it. For the program.

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Biden said the flight would take people from “staging locations” such as Qatar and Germany to the United States or a third country, calling it the early stages of the program. “None of them will land in Kabul,” he said.

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines said they would launch a rescue flight on Monday and, along with other airlines, welcomed the call to assist the US military in a humanitarian crisis.

“Americans … are proud to fulfill their obligation to help the US military expand this humanitarian and diplomatic relief mission. Images from Afghanistan are tragic.”

Biden said the operation should have minimal impact on commercial flights. Delta said it would have no impact on commercial activity, but American Airlines said, “We will strive to minimize the impact on our customers as airlines temporarily exclude these aircraft from service.” United is still assessing the impact, but expected it to be “minimized.”

Atlas Air said it would carry evacuees to the United States and “wait in case additional capacity is needed.”

In the last 24 hours, about 3,900 people have been evacuated from Cabourg on 35 simultaneous planes, including commercial airlines, and 3,900 on 23 US military flights, according to the White House. In total, about 25,100 people have been evacuated since August 14, he added.