Miami Air International

Miami Air International
Founded	1990
Hubs	KMIA
Fleet size	8
Destinations	Worldwide On Demand
Parent company	TSI Holdings
Headquarters	Miami, Florida, USA
Key people	Ross Fischer
Website	http://www.miamiair.com/

Miami Air International is an American charter airline based in Miami, Florida, USA. It operates passenger charter flights on all continents except Antarctica. 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. ^[1]

History

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 and Pan Am 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 B-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 B-727s to cargo aircraft to operate it's cargo hub in Austin, TX under the Quest International name. Simultaneously, new B-737-800s were leased to provide the passenger service of the converted B-727s. In 2001, the events of 11 Sept and the awarding of the postal contract to FEDEX caused lease rates and values of B727s to plummet and in early 2002 EGL stopped utilizing Quest cargo aircraft and they were sold off. Meanwhile in large part due to the huge jump in military business, Miami Air's passenger business thrived and the company grew to 8 B737-800s and 2 passenger B727s by 2005. At that time one of the existing shareholders (TSI Holdings) expressed a desire to purchase the entire company and bought out the other EGL consortium and remaining original shareholders. At the present time, Miami Air International with it's B-737-800s remains an ad hoc charterer with a wide customer base. The military, sport teams, cruise lines, tour operators and incentive groups are the main customers. It's B-737-400s which are in first class configuration are devoted mainly to professional sports teams in hockey, baseball and basketball. It's operations are worldwide covering every continent except Antarctica and it lands at more airfields annually than any other US carrier.