Afghan Aerial Evacuation in Context
August 24, 2021
On August 15, 2021, the U.S. military began evacuating thousands of persons from Hamid Karzai
International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan. As of August 24, the military has airlifted approximately
64,000 persons since July (Figure 1)—of those, approximately 40,000 were reportedly evacuated since
August 16 and 12,700 were reportedly evacuated on August 23 alone. President Biden has stated that he
intends to complete the evacuation and the Taliban have stipulated that U.S. forces need to withdraw from
Afghanistan by August 31.
Figure 1. Stated Passenger Evacuations and Flights, by Day
Source: CRS analysis of DOD press briefing transcripts August 17-24.
Both military and civilian aircraft are being used for the evacuation. General Mark Milley, Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated on August 18 that the U.S. military was flying on average 20 C-17 flights
every 24 hours, with the ability to expand capacity. On August 22, U.S. and allies performed 94 flights
from Kabul. On the same day, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet
(CRAF), leveraging 18 aircraft from six airlines to augment Air Force capacity. This is the third time the
