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Founded | August 1990 | ||||||
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Commenced operations | October 1991 | ||||||
Hubs | Miami International Airport | ||||||
Fleet size | 6 | ||||||
Parent company | TSI Holding Company | ||||||
Headquarters | Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA | ||||||
Key people | James Proia, C.E.O. Ross Fischer. Chairman |
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Website | www.miamiair.com |
Miami Air International is an American charter airline based in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It operates worldwide passenger charter flights for diverse groups including cruise operators, professional sports teams and the United States military. It is based in Miami International Airport.
Miami Air's customers include incentive groups, sports teams, Fortune 500 companies, major cruise lines, entertainers, political candidates and the United States government. Under the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program, Miami Air is contracted by the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command (USAF AMC) for transporting troops and cargo.
The airline was established in August 1990 and started operations in October 1991 using Boeing 727-200 aircraft on lease from Xerox Credit Corporation.
George Lyall who had a long career at Eastern Air Lines and Pan Am World Airways was Chairman and Ross Fischer who had run System Operations at People Express and Eastern was President. These executives were the primary shareholders and founders, which also included a variety of former Eastern personnel, a former "Big 8" partner with extensive industry audit experience, an upcoming Miami lawyer and several former People Express operations personnel. By 2000, the company had grown to 8 owned Boeing 727 aircraft and revenues in excess of $100 million.
That year, a consortium led by Eagle Global Logistics purchased a majority stake in the company, primarily from retiring shareholders and embarked on converting the company's Boeing 727s to cargo aircraft to operate its cargo hub in Austin, Texas under the Quest International name. Simultaneously, new Boeing 737-800s were leased to provide the passenger service of the converted Boeing 727s. In 2001, the events of September 11th and the awarding of the postal contract to FedEx Express caused lease rates and values of Boeing 727s to plummet and in early 2002 EGL stopped utilizing Quest cargo aircraft and they were sold off.