The action you should coordinate with the APC before starting a PCS move is the shipment of your personal property (household goods). APC stands for Aerial Port Control — the passenger and cargo terminal at a military aerial port — and the Air Force's transportation office at each installation is the Personal Property Processing Office, or PPPO. Those are two different offices, and the task that ties them together is making sure your property shipment is booked and documented before you arrive at the terminal.
What the APC Actually Is and Why It Doesn't Book Your Household Goods
Aerial Port Control is the cargo and passenger terminal operation. At an aerial port, the APC manages aircraft load planning, pallet build-up, and the manifest for anything flying military air, including duty and PCS passengers on space-available or duty travel. On a PCS move, the APC's fingerprints are on your travel day, not on the truck that picks up your furniture.
The office that books your household goods is the PPPO, run under the installation transportation office. The PPPO is where you file DD Form 1299, Application for Shipment and/or Storage of Personal Property, and DD Form 619, the inventory record, and where you pick your move type — household goods, personally procured move, unaccompanied baggage, or storage. None of those transactions happens at an aerial port.
The confusion is common because both offices sit inside the transportation world and both can touch a PCS. But the question "which is an action you should coordinate with the APC before you start a PCS move" collapses two separate workflows. The APC side concerns your body and your hand-carried bags getting on a flight. The PPPO side concerns your couch getting on a truck.
If you show up at an aerial port expecting to arrange a household goods shipment, you'll be sent back to your installation's transportation office. The same holds in reverse. Keep the two in separate mental buckets and the rest of the move gets simpler.
The Pre-Move Tasks You Must Close Out With the PPPO, in Order
Here is the sequence the PPPO will walk you through, and the order matters because each step feeds the next.
1: Get your orders in hand. The PPPO cannot create a shipment without funded orders showing your authorized weight allowance and destination. Confirm the orders list every dependent and the correct gaining installation. 2: File DD Form 1299. This is the application for shipment and/or storage. You specify what moves, what goes to non-temporary storage, and what goes into unaccompanied baggage. 3: Attend the counseling session. The PPPO schedules a briefing where you elect your move type and sign the paperwork that authorizes the carrier. 4: Schedule pickup and delivery dates. The PPPO passes the dates to the moving company. You get a spread of possible pickup windows, not a single confirmed time until the carrier calls. 5: Complete DD Form 619 at pickup. The carrier inventories every item as it loads. Your signature on that form is your only leverage if something arrives damaged. 6: File your travel claim separately. The finance office, not the PPPO and not the APC, handles per diem and dislocation allowance.
The failure mode people trip over is step four. If you accept a pickup window that ends after your report date, you either leave your spouse behind to supervise the load or you eat the cost of a storage-in-transit arrangement you didn't plan for. Build in a buffer of at least a week between pickup and your final out.
Where the APC Enters Your Move: Space-A and Duty Travel Flights
Aerial Port Control takes over when you're flying military air. If you're on duty travel or using space-available travel, the APC at your departing terminal handles check-in, baggage weight verification, and the manifest that puts your name on a specific tail number. The APC also enforces the baggage rules — typically two checked bags up to 70 pounds each on most military charter and space-A flights, though the exact allowance depends on the mission and the aircraft, so confirm with the terminal before you pack.
Space-A travel is where the APC coordination becomes genuinely important. You don't get a guaranteed seat. You get a category and a position on a list, and the APC calls names when a flight has room. Category changes — from Cat VI general to Cat III or Cat II for emergency leave or certain duty statuses — shift you up the list, and only the APC can verify your category at check-in. Arriving with the wrong paperwork means you wait for the next flight.
For a household goods shipment, the APC does nothing. Your property moves by commercial carrier under the PPPO's arrangement, or by your own rental truck if you take a personally procured move. The APC neither inspects nor transports household goods on PCS orders. That boundary is the whole answer to the keyword question, and it's where most people's assumptions go sideways.
Two Offices, One Move: Where Each One Owns the Task
| Task | Owning office | What they control | What they don't control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking household goods shipment | PPPO (installation transportation) | Carrier assignment, pickup/delivery windows, DD Form 1299 | Flight seats, baggage weight |
| Filing DD Form 1299 | PPPO | Weight allowance, storage election, move type | Per diem, dislocation allowance |
| Inventory at pickup (DD Form 619) | PPPO-authorized carrier | Item-by-item condition record | Claims adjudication |
| Space-A seat and manifest | APC (aerial port terminal) | Category verification, seat assignment, baggage weight | Household goods of any kind |
| Duty travel check-in | APC | Boarding, manifest, aircraft load | Move dates, carrier scheduling |
| Travel pay and per diem | Finance office | Claim payment, advances | Shipment authorization |
Read the table right to left if you want the short version. The PPPO owns anything that weighs more than a suitcase. The APC owns the flight your body boards and the bags you carry onto it. Finance owns the money. Three offices, three scopes, and none of them overlap.
If you mix them up, the practical cost is a wasted trip. Driving to the aerial port with your DD Form 1299 in hand accomplishes nothing. Calling the PPPO to ask about a space-A seat gets you a polite redirect. Know which office answers which question before you dial.
Who This Confusion Hits Hardest: Overseas and Remote Assignments
Overseas PCS moves sharpen the APC-versus-PPPO split because both offices become more active. A move to an overseas location typically involves a household goods shipment by sea or air freight arranged through the PPPO, plus a duty flight or commercial flight you may book through the travel office. At an overseas aerial port, the APC runs the terminal where your unaccompanied baggage may clear customs and where you process on arrival.
Unaccompanied baggage is the edge case that catches people. It's a third category — not household goods, not carry-on — shipped by air to arrive faster than the main shipment. The PPPO authorizes it as part of your DD Form 1299 package, but the actual movement can route through an aerial port where the APC handles the cargo side. If your unaccompanied baggage gets held at the terminal, you'll be talking to both offices to sort out where it went.
Remote and isolated assignments add another wrinkle. A move to a location with limited carrier access may require storage in transit or a longer-than-normal delivery window, and the PPPO has to authorize both. The APC only matters if you're flying in. On a move to a remote site reachable only by military air, your arrival is an APC function and your property is a PPPO function that may not follow you until months later — a timing gap you should plan around rather than discover at the terminal.
Deadlines That Bite if You Sequence the Offices Wrong
The PPPO wants your DD Form 1299 filed as early as your orders allow, and the counseling session typically has to happen before the carrier can be scheduled. Miss that window and your pickup dates compress, which pushes delivery later and raises the odds you're paying out of pocket for temporary lodging. There's no published universal deadline that fits every installation — confirm your local transportation office's required lead time when you call to schedule counseling.
The APC has its own timing rules. Space-A check-in usually opens a set number of hours before departure, and the manifest closes before that. Arriving late, even by minutes, moves you to the next flight. Duty travel passengers have reporting times the APC enforces. These are hard cutoffs, not suggestions.
The two timelines don't sync. You can file your DD Form 1299 months out and still miss a space-A flight because you showed up 20 minutes after roll call. Plan the property shipment on a months-long horizon and the flight on a hours-long horizon. Treating them as one schedule is how people end up stranded at a terminal with a confirmed moving date three weeks away.
One more deadline deserves a mention: the claims window. If your household goods arrive damaged, you file against the carrier through the PPPO's claims process, and that window is time-limited. The APC has nothing to do with it. Losing track of that deadline because you were focused on flight arrangements is a costly mistake.
Weight, Bags, and Paperwork: What Each Office Actually Checks
The PPPO checks your authorized weight allowance against your rank and dependent status, and it weighs the shipment at pickup and delivery. Go over and you pay for the excess. Under and you leave entitlement on the table — you can't bank unused weight for a later move.
The APC checks your carry-on and checked baggage against the flight's allowance, which can differ from commercial airline rules. On military charter and space-A flights, the typical limit is two checked bags at up to 70 pounds each, but the aircraft type and mission drive the real number. A C-17 and a contracted commercial charter don't load bags the same way. Confirm with the terminal, not with a blog.
Paperwork splits the same way. The PPPO wants your orders, DD Form 1299, and DD Form 619 at pickup. The APC wants your ID, your orders or travel authorization, and your space-A category documentation if you're flying space-A. Bring the right packet to the right desk. A DD Form 1299 at the aerial port is dead weight. A space-A category letter at the PPPO is equally useless.
If you're doing a personally procured move, the PPPO still authorizes it and still computes your entitlement, but you arrange the truck and the loading yourself. The APC is irrelevant unless you're also flying. Don't let the DIY nature of a PPM convince you the transportation office is optional — it isn't.
Common Mistakes That Cost Time and Money
The first mistake is assuming the APC books household goods. It doesn't, and acting on that assumption wastes a trip and delays your actual filing. The second is skipping the PPPO counseling session because the online paperwork seemed complete. The counseling is where move type elections get locked in, and changing them later requires re-authorization.
The third mistake is packing space-A bags to commercial airline limits. Military terminals weigh bags individually and enforce the mission's allowance, and an overweight bag gets left behind or repacked on the spot. Weigh everything at home before you drive to the terminal.
The fourth is treating the pickup window as a confirmed appointment. The carrier calls to schedule within the window, and the call can come late. If you've already flown out on duty travel, someone needs to be at the house to sign DD Form 619. Arrange that person in advance, with written authorization if the carrier requires it — confirm the carrier's rule on who can sign.
The fifth is forgetting that storage in transit has to be authorized. If your new home isn't ready when your goods arrive, the PPPO has to approve SIT before the carrier stores anything. Unauthorized storage becomes your bill. Ask about SIT at counseling, not at delivery.
A Worked Example: Timeline From Orders to Delivery
Say your orders drop in March and you report in August. You call the PPPO in March to schedule counseling, file DD Form 1299 at that session, and get a pickup window in early July. You book a space-A flight for late July through the terminal, confirm your category, and pack two bags at 68 pounds each to stay under the 70-pound cap.
The carrier calls in late June to confirm the July pickup. You sign DD Form 619 as items load. Delivery is scheduled for late August, after your report date, so the PPPO authorizes storage in transit for three weeks. Your goods arrive in September. Total elapsed time from orders to delivery: about six months, with the property shipment consuming four of those months.
That timeline isn't a guarantee — carrier availability, distance, and overseas routing all stretch it. But it shows the shape of a well-sequenced move. The APC appears exactly once, on flight day. Everything else runs through the PPPO and finance. Get the sequence right and the two offices never have to talk to each other on your behalf.
FAQ
Is the APC the same as the PPPO?
No. Aerial Port Control runs the military air terminal and handles passengers and cargo on flights, while the Personal Property Processing Office books and documents household goods shipments. They sit in different chains and answer different questions. Calling one about the other's task gets you redirected.
Do I coordinate household goods shipment with the APC?
No. Household goods go through the PPPO at your installation transportation office using DD Form 1299. The APC only handles what flies with you — your body and your checked bags. A carrier moves your furniture under PPPO authorization.
What is the baggage limit on a space-A flight?
Typically two checked bags up to 70 pounds each on most military charter and space-A missions, but the aircraft and mission set the real number. Confirm with the departing terminal before you pack, because a C-17 and a contracted charter load differently. Overweight bags get left or repacked.
Can I change my move type after counseling?
Yes, but it requires re-authorization through the PPPO, and late changes can compress your pickup window. Elect your move type — household goods, PPM, unaccompanied baggage — at counseling and confirm the election before the carrier is scheduled. Changes after scheduling cost time.
What happens if my goods arrive before my housing is ready?
The PPPO must authorize storage in transit before the carrier stores anything. Unauthorized storage becomes your expense. Raise SIT at counseling or as soon as your housing timeline slips, and get the authorization in writing before delivery day.
Does the APC handle unaccompanied baggage?
Partly. The PPPO authorizes unaccompanied baggage as part of your shipment package, but the cargo can route through an aerial port where the APC handles the terminal side. If it's held, you'll deal with both offices to trace it.
How early should I file DD Form 1299?
As soon as your orders allow, and early enough to complete counseling before carrier scheduling. Local transportation offices set their own lead times, so confirm the required window when you call. Filing months out protects your pickup dates.
Who pays if my household goods are damaged?
The carrier is liable, and you file a claim through the PPPO's claims process within its time limit. The APC has no role in household goods claims. Photograph condition at pickup and delivery and keep your copy of DD Form 619.
This article is general educational information about military moving procedures, not a legal or financial opinion. Shipping entitlements, weight allowances, baggage limits, and claims rules change and vary by service, installation, and orders — confirm the specifics with your installation transportation office, your aerial port terminal, and your finance office before you commit money or dates.