Hawaiian Airlines helps in relocation efforts for evacuees from Afghanistan

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The first of two Hawaiian Airlines planes took off Wednesday morning to assist in the process of transporting Afghan evacuees to their new homes. 

The Department of Defense activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet to help with with the evacuation efforts from Afghanistan. The fleet includes 18 aircrafts from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, Omni Air, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines.

Hawaiian Airlines will ferry evacuees from interim destinations on the east coast to new cities and towns on the mainland United States.

Prior to the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan on Monday, the military was responsible for getting Americans and allies out of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Evacuees were taken to US military bases in the Middle East where they were processed for resettlement in other countries, including the United States.

This is the third time the Civil Reserve Air Fleet has been activated.

The first time was in support of Operations Desert Shield/Storm from August 1990 to May 1991 during the Gulf War and the second was for Operation Iraqi Freedom from February 2002 to June 2003 during the invasion of Iraq.

Hawaiian Airlines Chief Operating Officer Jon Snook said his team is beyond proud to be a part of this important mission.

”This is the third time we have been activated by the department as part of the CRAF program and we are proud supporters of our military ,and we are just happy to be able to support this in some way given the terrible tragedy that has been unfolding over the last few weeks,” Snook said.

Hawaiian Airlines will have a second plane depart from Honolulu to assist in the relocation effort, that flight is scheduled to leave sometime Thursday.

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