More schedule changes forecast for Patriot Express

[unhappycamper]

More schedule changes forecast for Patriot Express
By Vince Little, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, May 31, 2008

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — More changes are about to hit the Patriot Express.

Throughout June, the U.S. military’s only chartered commercial air service in the Pacific will operate on a new schedule. It will pass through Yokota every Wednesday and Thursday on a weekly round-trip mission from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and back.

The flight had been on a Thursday-Friday rotation the past two months following the bankruptcy of ATA Airlines, its old carrier. In April, Northwest Airlines stepped up with an Airbus 330 to continue the mission.

Starting around July 10, the Patriot Express will be upgraded to a Boeing 747 — which features about 100 more seats — but go to a biweekly route until the end of August, said Col. Mark Baker, the 730th Air Mobility Squadron commander. The aircraft also is set to shift course, originating in Seattle as it did previously.

"Exact schedules and times are being coordinated by the carrier with Tanker Airlift Control Center and should be available soon," Baker said. "The switch was made based on the airline’s availability to support the military’s needs ... which accounts for day and direction changes."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55201