According to the reports, the commercial aircraft from a number of carriers, including Delta and American would not be used to fly into Kabul itself but would be used to transport passengers who have already flown out of Afghanistan.
Stage 1 will see four aircraft from United Airlines, three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, Omni Air and two from Hawaiian Airlines deployed to the region an aid the evacuation movement.
American Airlines confirmed on Sunday that it would deploy three widebody aircraft to military bases and other secure transit points on the Arabian Peninsula and in Europe to assist with the transportation of U.S. citizens and refugees coming from Kabul, Afghanistan.
In a statement, the carrier said "American is part of the CRAF program and is proud to fulfil its duty to help the U.S. military scale this humanitarian and diplomatic rescue mission. The images from Afghanistan are heartbreaking. The airline is proud and grateful of our pilots and flight attendants, who will be operating these trips to be a part of this life-saving effort."
United said it would send four Boeing 777 aircraft to "operate flights to bring our troops, American civilians and Afghan citizens who have risked their lives to help keep them safe, to the U.S"
Atlas Air issued the following statement on Sunday, "We will be flying passenger aircraft to carry the evacuees safely to the U.S. and will be standing by should additional capacity be needed.
As the largest supplier of airlift to the U.S. military, we are proud to provide this essential passenger service in the region at this critical time."
Delta said it had been in touch with the Department of Defense for some times prior to the invocation of the CRAF and was already arranging multiple relief flights. It confirmed the airline will operate using available spare aircraft on this new operation.
“For decades, Delta has actively played a role in supporting the US Military and our troops,” said John Laughter, Delta EVP and Chief of Operations. “And we are again proud to pledge Delta people and our aircraft in support our country’s relief efforts.”
This is the third CRAF activation in the history of the program. The first occurred in support of Operations Desert Shield/Storm (Aug. 1990 to May 1991), and the second was for Operation Iraqi Freedom (Feb. 2002 to June 2003).
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