Erik Prince, a military defense contractor and Republican operative, is planning to charge $6,500 per seat on a chartered evacuation flight out of Kabul, Afghanistan, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Prince said the fee would cover entry to the airport and the flight out, but he would charge passengers more if they require transport to the airport from within the capitol city.
At the same time, a slew of private groups, including non-profits, are helping evacuate vulnerable Afghans and others. But some chartered flights are leaving Kabul with dozens of empty seats because Afghans and foreigners can’t get through Taliban checkpoints or US marine checkpoints at the airport, the Journal reported.
Evacuations are largely scheduled to end by Friday in order to give the US military time to close down its operations at the Hamid Karzai International Airport ahead of its August 31 withdrawal deadline. Biden has refused to extend the deadline to continue evacuations, a decision many Democratic lawmakers have criticized. Since the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 14, US troops have evacuated more than 70,000 people, including more than 4,000 Americans and their families, according to the State Department.