Military Charter question

[Joseph29]

If a military charter (like North American or Omni Air) fly to a airport that has both a military side and a civil side where would they park the plane? At the civil gates or in the military part of the airport?

[Jumpshot724]

I would assume it depends a lot on the size of the airport, parking availability, etc etc. IMHO, they'd most likely park at a remote stand and the pax would be bussed to whichever side they needed to go

[Joseph29]

Thanks. I have flight plans for Omni, North American, and Ryan International that fly to some airports that have both a military and civil side to the airport and I am not sure where to park them.

[Jumpshot724]

Which airports? I might be able to give you some insght lol

[Joseph29]

Which airports? I might be able to give you some insght lol

San Juan
Colorado Springs
Goose Bay
Anchorage
Bangor
Stuttgart

I am guessing Goose Bay would be parking in the military side of the airport because the terminal is so small.

[sprocky]

As for Stuttgart:
I never saw them on the civil side. I only saw them parked on the military side but in front of the cargo buildings.

[Greg]

In my experience, civilian aircraft chartered by the military always go to the military side. It's logic, because the aircraft will normally be loaded/unloaded/serviced by the military so why would they have the aircraft park on the other side when all the means are available on their own apron? It would also mean transporting all your cargo or pax to the other side of the airport.

Only exceptions I've seen is if there's not enough space, mostly with An-124's.

[Victory103]

Having been on these flights, in CO Springs they drop off/pick up at Colorado Jet Center FBO on the west side of the field. Here at KGRK they to are parked on the west side mil cargo area.

[ahs06]

Military charters are a strange event. It really depends on the conditions of the trip. I worked a COA 737-900 and they came to the Wiggins FBO while a SWA 737-700 was supposed to be parked at and loaded from a SWA gate. Due to a glitch, the SWA pax showed up at the FBO too. We ended up doing everything on the east ramp because there was no smart way to move 86 people after the busses had left. Every charter I have known of at PSM and BGR always used the terminal. Unlike Manchester, these flights tend to be headed to Europe or coming back so they need customs. Another thing is that because of the risk of fire, refueling the aircraft needs to be either at a jetway or airstairs.
On a side note, I’ve never seen the military load bags alone without an airline or FBO stateside (when available). We have belt loaders and other fun stuff, plus we’re pretty good at what we do.

[LEBTowerGuy]

Places like BWI where the World, Omni, Ryan, etc. go to terminal E, and are serviced by ASIG personel. When I worked for the FBO there, I got shanghied by ASIG to help out downloading an MD-11 comming back from the sandbox. that was a bugger let me tell you. They don't use containers, so the bags just sit free in the hold, and it was full.

[Greg]

But BWI is a totally different example. They don't have a military apron and Air Mobility Command has a detachment in concourse E...

[LEBTowerGuy]

good point, I guess I misunderstood the post. Like the ASH guy said, places like Bangor and Pease do use the civilian terminal for processing troop charters, but that is because they are usually ment for tech stops and clearing customs, then continuing on to their destinations, either home base or deployment area. I remember Frankfurt used to have its own AMC terminal for troop charters, unitl it was BRACed and everything moved to Ramstein.

[Joseph29]

Thanks guys. This has been very helpful.

[flyboy]

Some have AMC contract terminals like in Philadelphia. I use to fly commercial from Tyndall AFB to Philadelphia and catch the contract charter. It then went to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey via Lajes Field, Aviano, and Naval Air Station Sigonella. This was pretty much a straight thru flight except for refueling. I have to wait a day to catch the local C-130 supply run into Diyarbakır then on to a classified location.

I did this trip four times in one year. To return, I used a C-12, a C-141 or C-130 via Adana and Rhein-Main. I then catch Delta out of Frankfurt to Atlanta, then on to Panama City (Tyndall).