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Fairchild Space A at Moses Lake

  • Published
  • By Scott King
  • Scott King
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  Because of runway closure here, KC-135 flying operations have been relocated to the Spokane International Airport and the Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake Wash. One of many programs affected by this is Space Available or Space "A" travel.

Space A flights are a unique privilege afforded to service members, retirees and their families. Under this program, unused seats on board U.S. military aircraft are made available to these passengers once all the required duty passengers and cargo have been accommodated.

The 92nd Logistics Readiness Squadron small air terminal operations section has stepped up to the challenge of accommodating Space A passengers and will be supporting the program at both locations.

"The biggest challenge with this relocation has been the logistics of processing Space A flights from three different locations; Fairchild, the Spokane International Airport and in Moses Lake," said Staff Sgt. Stacey Murray, 92nd LRS section chief, small air terminal. "With only a five-man shop, supporting the mission 24 hours per-day is going to be challenging, but we are up for that challenge and will do everything we can to support our passengers."

Currently, they are providing Space A support at SIA and GCIA by traveling to and from Fairchild as aircraft are taking off and arriving around-the-clock.

"We are working hard to support our customer's requirements," Sergeant Murray said. "So far, we haven't brought any undue hardship to any of our Space A passengers utilizing our services. We have already processed about a dozen passengers in the past two weeks out of SIA, but as of now, we have not had the opportunity to process anyone out of Moses Lake."

Fairchild travelers, are processed here and bussed to SIA where they catch their flights out. Upon arrival to SIA, passengers will be bussed back to Fairchild. But for Moses Lake, passengers will find things to be different and not as accommodating.

"Because of Air Force regulations, passengers will be responsible for their own transportation arrangements to and from Moses Lake," Sergeant Murray said. "We have a 'bare-bones' passenger terminal area in the Japan Airlines hangar (now known as the Fairchild hanger) at GCIA that is not equipped with many amenities for passengers awaiting their flights."

Passengers who wish to travel Space A from Moses Lake must be at the GCIA JAL gate entrance no later than fifteen minutes prior to the scheduled show time. Passenger amenities will be extremely limited and the following services will not be available; family restrooms, vending machines, family/ distinguished visitor lounge or phones or internet access. Due to the unavailability of an X-ray machine and a walk-thru metal detector, all baggage will be hand checked and all passengers will be hand screened by a passenger service agent. In-Flight meals will be available for purchase.

Flights out of SIA and GCIA can range from the "rotator" flight to RAF Mildenhall, U.K.; Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; Scott Air Force Base Ill; Elmendorf AFB, Alaska and Nellis AFB, Nev.

"We know this is an inconvenience for our passengers, but we will do everything we can to make their experience fairly smooth," said Sergeant Murray.

Passengers can sign up for Space A one of two ways; in person at the Fairchild Passenger Terminal or via e-mail at 92lrs.pasengerprocessing@us.af.mil. For more information, contact a passenger service agent at 509-247-3406.