On Sunday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III actuated stage 1 of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), requesting six business aircraft to give traveler planes to assist with clearing individuals from US army installations in the Middle East, the Department of Defense said in a news discharge.

The planes will not fly in or out of the Kabul air terminal in Afghanistan; however, they will assist with moving Afghans and US residents who have shown up at bases in Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The arrangement calls for 18 complete planes; four from United Airlines, three from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Airlines, Omni Air, and two from Hawaiian Airlines. The DoD said in the delivery it doesn’t anticipate that the CRAF activation should significantly affect business flights.

The Washington Post reports authorities said Sunday that the planes would assist with moving Afghans from the bases in the Middle East to places in Europe and some to the US. The bases have seen the appearances of thousands of Afghans attempting to escape as the Taliban assume control over Afghanistan.

As per the DoD, Sunday is the third time CRAF has been initiated; it was first enacted during the conflict in the Persian Gulf (from August 1990 to May 1991) and during the Iraq battle (from February 2002 to June 2003).