U.S. recruits commercial airlines to move Afghanistan evacuees
The United States has recruited six commercial airlines to help transport people after their evacuation from Afghanistan, as Washington seeks to step up the pace of departures of Americans and at-risk Afghans from Kabul.
The Pentagon said, it called up 18 civilian aircraft from United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air and others to carry people from temporary locations after they landed on flights from Afghanistan.
The move highlights the difficulty Washington is having carrying out the evacuations following the Taliban’s swift takeover.
Thousands of people remained outside the Kabul international airport on Sunday hoping to be evacuated as Taliban gunmen beat back crowds.
President Joe Biden, said in an address from the White House that airlines voluntarily signed up for the program, “It’s a program that was designed in the wake of the Berlin airlift after World War Two to use commercial aircraft to augment our airlift capacity.”
Biden said the flights would bring people from staging locations like Qatar and Germany to the United States or a third country. He called it the initial stage of the program.
“None of them will be landing in Kabul,” he said.
American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines and privately held Omni Air will provide three aircraft each. There are also two from Hawaiian Airlines, and four from United Airlines.
American and Delta said they would start relief flights on Monday and along with other carriers, welcomed the call to aid the US military amid the humanitarian crisis.
“American 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 statement said.
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Kamila/Reuters
