(NewsNation) — White House spokesperson John Kirby said the first charter flight the U.S. State Department organized to take Americans out of Israel left Friday.
Reuters reports that the plane landed in Athens and is en route to Europe.
The publication identified the flight on a U.S.-based charter company from flight records, and a White House official speaking to the publication on the condition of anonymity confirmed it landed.
Additional charter flights are scheduled between Athens and Tel Aviv through at least Oct. 19, a different source told Reuters.
Government officials announced the flights Thursday for U.S. citizens and their families unable to book commercial transit.
While some commercial carriers are flying out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport at this time, and ground routes are open to leave Israel, the White House has voiced concern that these options might not be feasible — or affordable — for some Americans who want to leave Israel at this time.
About four charter flights a day are being arranged out of Israel, with the State Department saying it expects to facilitate the departure of thousands of U.S. citizens a week from the country, according to the Associated Press.
The State Department has a team communicating 24/7 with U.S. citizens, providing assistance through phone calls and an online crisis intake form, a spokesperson told NewsNation.
Factors such as the overall security situation, availability and reliability of commercial transportation and U.S. citizen demand all influence how long this departure assistance will last.
U.S. citizens needing evacuation assistance can complete an intake form at travel.state.gov.
Federal law requires departing U.S. citizens and third-country nationals generally be provided with a loan from the federal government. Evacuees are obligated to repay the cost 30 days from the date they are billed or face a $50 administrative charge, according to the State Department. The amount people are billed is determined by the price of a full-fare economy flight, or alternative transportation, to the destination that would have been charged before the events that led to an evacuation.
“Because different evacuation transports may go to different destinations, the cost of one transport may be different than another,” the State Department said. “We encourage people to leave on the first transport they are able and eligible to board.”
Those who take a charter flight should be prepared to arrange their own lodging and “onward travel” to their final destination, the State Department said to NBC Bay Area.
“U.S. Embassy officials will be available to help you when you arrive,” the department said in an email to the news outlet.
To make an evacuation loan payment to the State Department, people can use the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, which works with U.S. Bureaus, Post and Embassies to gather the necessary documents to process these loans and prepare bills. However, the department notes that CGFS is experiencing a high volume of requests because of the “multiple repatriations and evacuations related to the COVID-19 global pandemic.”
As of Friday afternoon, the number of Americans killed in the Israel-Hamas War is at 27, while 14 are unaccounted for.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.