US freighter operator Amerijet International Airlines is this month celebrating 50 years of operations.
The Miami-headquartered airline was founded in 1974 by David Bassett and initially operated as a Part 135 air-taxi operator with a single leased airplane.
Since then it has evolved “into a market leader in the Caribbean & Central America” operating twelve 767 freighters, the airline said.
Other milestones in the company’s history include the purchase of its first aircraft in 1976, the investment in its first Boeing 727 in 1985, the opening of its Miami hub in 1987, the opening of stations in Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Central America Europe and Asia in the late 80s to early 2000s, the addition of a Boeing 767-200 aircraft in 2003 and first 767-300F in 2014.
More recently the company achieved CEIV Pharma certification in 2017 and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for ETOPS operations in 2020.
The airline said its focus on customer service, reliability and safety over the last five decades had contributed to its success.
Chief executive Joe Mozzali said: “For a company to achieve a 50th year anniversary milestone is extremely impressive, especially in the dynamic Latin America air cargo market.
“This is a direct reflection of our resilience while providing value and service to customers and communities.
“We could not do what we do without our most valuable asset, our people. I want to thank our employees for their dedicated efforts as well as our customers for their loyal support.”
The last couple of years have not been easy for the airline and earlier this year it went through a restructuring and offloaded some freighters in response to a slowing air cargo market in 2023.
However, the company said it is now back on track and said that over the first 11 months of the year charter revenues have increased 39% year on year and scheduled service revenues for the period are up 18% on a year ago.
“Amerijet is now well-positioned long term to remain a market leader in the Caribbean and Central America while executing our mission of transporting goods that enrich and connect the lives of our customers and communities,” the company said in a press release.
The company has released a video to highlight its development over the past 50 years.
https://www.aircargonews.net/1071209.article
