Pentagon Activates Civil Reserve Air Fleet As Six Commercial Airlines Loan 18 Planes To Help With Afghanistan Evacuation Efforts

The Pentagon activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet on Sunday, calling in reinforcements from six different airlines to loan 18 airplanes to evacuate Americans and their allies from Afghanistan as soon as possible.

This evacuation effort will not fly into Kabul but will instead ferry refugees from staging bases in Germany, Qatar, and Bahrain.

The Pentagon said that nearly 15,000 Americans need to be airlifted out of the area, and the administration hopes to get out an additional 50-60,000 Afghans.

According to a statement from Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby, eighteen planes will be used to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies who are already in “safe havens and interim staging bases.”

Aircrafts used for this evacuation stage include four from United Airlines, two from Hawaiian Airlines, and three from each – American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, and Omni Air.

Military flights will continue to go to the airport in the Taliban-controlled Kabul to get refugees out of Afghanistan.