In the United States, the massive mobility requirements during World War II proved that military transport could not meet all the logistical needs that might arise.
As a result, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) was developed to use airline capacity to provide maximum airlift support in wartime situations.
The government receives an extremely economical source of emergency capacity as well as reasonable costs for peacetime military transportation.
Historically, services were provided to each military theater as follows: Noteworthy disasters involving a military charter flight include: Since 1990, scheduled military passenger services have been operated by ATA, World Airways, Evergreen International, Northwest Airlines, Rich International, Sun Country, Tower Air, TWA, ATI, Carnival Air Lines and Omni Air International.
On March 23, 1974 an Airlift International DC-8-63 burned at Travis Air Force Base when fuel caught fire during maintenance.