US Airlines Cash in on CRAF

Every year the Pentagon contracts with civilian airlines to make sure they have adequate reserves of passenger and cargo lift when their needs outstrip their own lift capabilities. This is the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, CRAF, and the contracts are big business, $2.3 billion worth of big business this year alone. Competition for these contracts is normally pretty intense. The contract winners have been announced for this year and I'd like to offer up a personal congratulations to the folks at Evergreen Internationl Airlines for pulling in a $1.1 billion contract along with their partners North American Airlines. They, along with FedEx pulled down the lion's share of the dollars. Nice to job to the little guys like MN Airlines (Sun Country) and Grand Holdings (Champion Air) for getting a small slice of the pie too. Every bit helps.