USTRANSCOM Domestic Chartered Airlift Services

The Department of the Air Force Air Mobility Command awarded this Master IDIQ for domestic chartered airlift services to USTRANSCOM on December 1, 2018, with a combined potential value of $144.977 million; the vehicle is no longer accepting orders, with the last date to order having passed on September 29, 2023, nearly three years ago.

Ordering momentum has declined sharply. The vehicle peaked in 2020 with 27 task orders, then declined to 11 in 2021, 13 in 2022, 4 in 2023, and only 1 in 2024. All 66 task orders awarded to date have been obligated in full against the $144.977 million potential value, leaving no unobligated capacity. The final task order—a $102,500 passenger airlift between West Palm Beach, Florida and Naval Air Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, awarded to an unspecified contractor on March 14, 2024—represents the vehicle's last activity over two years ago.

Task orders procure full-plane charters using Federal Aviation Regulation Part 135 fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft for ad hoc and recurring passenger and cargo movements, exercises, Special Assignment Airlift Missions, emergency relief operations, and contingency support. Performance spans the Continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, and Canada at both military and commercial airfields. Representative recent orders include recurring monthly passenger service between West Palm Beach and Guantanamo Bay, Point Mugu cargo operations, Alaska support missions, and San Clemente Island shuttles. A single mega-order dominates the portfolio: a Point Mugu chartered passenger airlift valued at $30.002 million, awarded February 1, 2019, represents over 27 percent of the vehicle's total potential value.

Competition is highly concentrated by dollar value. Phoenix Air Group, Inc., Wheels Up Partners LLC, Rampart Aviation LLC, and Kalitta Charters LLC together hold roughly 96 percent of combined potential value at $30.9 million, $28 million, $22.1 million, and $14.4 million respectively. By order count, CSI Aviation, Inc. leads with 17 awards but only $10 million combined value, reflecting smaller average deal sizes. Nine distinct prime contractors share the portfolio.

Customer concentration is severe: the Department of the Navy Air Mobility Command holds 26 orders valued at $55.4 million and drives the majority of activity. Naval Sea Systems Command placed 33 orders for only $1.9 million in combined value, indicating transactional fragmentation at that command. Naval Air Systems Command Naval Air Warfare Center contributed 2 orders worth $30.2 million, including the Point Mugu mega-order. Nearly 97 percent of orders derive from Navy commands.

The vehicle was established as a Total Small Business set-aside under solicitation HTC711-18-R-CC02, but actual execution shows virtually no reservation: 65 of 66 task orders (98 percent) carry no set-aside designation, with only a single $24,000 domestic chartered passenger airlift reserved as Total Small Business.

NAICS codes 481211 (nonscheduled chartered passenger air transportation) and 481212 (nonscheduled chartered freight air transportation) govern the procurement. Typical task-order values range from approximately $5,000 to $102,500 for transactional spot orders, with performance durations of several months; however, the vehicle historically accommodated multi-million-dollar recurring service contracts extending over years.

This IDIQ provides a wide variety of domestic airlift services, for the United States Transportation Command. (USTRANSCOM). This includes full-plane charters with a wide variety of aircraft capabilities/capacities to meet short-notice, ad hoc, and/or longer term recurring airlift needs. Specific requirements include missions to transport military, civilian, and contractor personnel and cargo to designated locations in support of DoD ad hoc and long term recurring requirements, exercises, Special Assignment Airlift Missions (SAAMs), and emergency relief efforts in response to natural disasters, regular training movements, and contingency operations. Aircraft required to perform mission essential airlift include Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 135 fixed-wing and rotary-wing passenger and cargo aircraft.