Light loads

[unhappycamper]

40 percent of theater flights less than half-full
Service looks to improve cargo tracking.


Light loads
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 9, 2008 13:17:17 EDT

When Air Force auditors studied transport operations in Iraq and Afghanistan last November, they discovered that one in five intratheater flights carried no cargo, and more than four in 10 were less than half-filled.

The problem, eye-opening at a time when the service is trying hard to save on fuel costs, was that planners in the region failed to alter flight operations as the role of commercial airlift grew, auditors said.

Now the service has pulled back on the number of planes there and is trying to improve how cargo is tracked.

In July 2006, commercial planes handled 6 percent of intratheater cargo, the Air Force Audit Agency report said. That number grew to 50 percent by December, but there was no significant change to the number of Air Force cargo planes in the region.

The report detailing the airlift problems was issued to Air Force personnel in July. Air Force Times obtained a copy through the Freedom of Information Act.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/09/airforce_empty_planes_090908/%2e