Space A flights require flexibility in passengers' plans

[unhappycamper]

Space A flights require flexibility in passengers' plans
By Tim Wightman, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The friendly skies are friendliest when they’re free, a fact to which most military space available flight passengers will attest.

Pacific region U.S. military officials say the premise behind “Space A” is simple and will continue to hold true for 2009: If there’s a reason for a military aircraft to fly to the States, the opportunity is there for servicemembers to hitch a ride.

A popular Space A flight in the Western Pacific area is the Patriot Express. The military’s only chartered commercial air service in the Pacific, the Express flies every week from Seattle to Yokota Air Base, Japan, to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, and back to Seattle.

To snag a seat on the Patriot Express or one of the KC-10, C-17 or C-5 aircraft bound from the Asia-Pacific region to the States requires passengers to follow the same set of Space A procedures as anywhere else in the world.

Military passengers must show paperwork indicating they’re on leave status, and it’s good to have plenty of leave saved up, said Master Sgt. Ray Ortiz, Yokota’s superintendent of passenger and fleet services for Air Mobility Command.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59956