National Airlines (N8)

National Airlines

IATA ICAO Callsign N8 NCR NATIONAL CARGO
Founded	1985
Fleet size	4
Headquarters	Orlando, Florida, United States
Website	nationalairlines.com

National Air Cargo, also operating as National Airlines, is an American airline based in Orlando, Florida.^[1] It operates on-demand cargo and passenger charter services. Its main base is Orlando-Sanford International Airport, Orlando.^[2]

History

The airline was established in 1985 and started operations in December 1986. It began with Mitsubishi MU-2 aircraft, which it developed for cargo use. In April 2005, Murray Air and its sister company, Murray Aviation, merged operations under Murray Air’s newly acquired Part 121 certificate.^[3] In December 2008, after the airline was acquired by National Air Cargo, Murray Air changed its name to National Airlines and operates under the National Air Cargo Group, Inc. umbrella.

National Airlines used to operate scheduled charter passenger flights from Oakland County International Airport to Kokomo Municipal Airport in Kokomo, Indiana, Chicago Rockford International Airport in Rockford, Illinois, Spirit of St. Louis Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, and Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (with some flights making intermediate stops at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan) for Chrysler Corporation employees and also sold seats on those flights to the general public. These flights were operated by Saab 340 and BAe Jetstream 31 aircraft in 30-seat and 19-seat configurations, respectively. This service is no longer operational.

On the cargo side, National Airlines operated two Douglas DC-8-63CF's (N921R/N865F) and one Douglas DC-8-71F (N872CA) on scheduled and charter operations worldwide, and later replaced one of the DC-8-63CF's with a DC-8-73F (N155CA).^[2] In April 2009, the carrier began cargo flights from Ypsilanti, Michigan to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan; the flights were extended to Kandahar International Airport in August of that year.^[4] This service was discontinued in 2010, with the last working flight for the DC-8 with National taking place in May 2012. During the summer of 2010, the airline purchased three Boeing 747-400BCF aircraft. These 747s were operated for the airline by Air Atlanta Icelandic initially, before being registered in the United States in 2011.

In May 2011, National leased a Boeing 757-200 in an all-passenger configuration and began operating the aircraft in an on-demand charter basis from Dubai. The airline added a second Boeing 757 during the spring of 2013 that was also used for charters in Dubai.

Originally based at Willow Run Airport, the company moved in 2013 to Orlando Sanford International Airport.

In September, 2015, National announced scheduled passenger service from its hub at Orlando Sanford International Airport using their two active 757s. The announced destinations include St. John's International Airport in St. John's, Canada, Windsor International Airport in Windsor, Canada, Vancouver International Airport in Vancouver, Canada, and Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.^[5][6][7]

Corporate affairs

National Air Cargo has its headquarters in Orchard Park, New York.^[8][9] The National Airlines division has its offices in Orlando, Florida.^[8]

At one time the airline had its headquarters at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Michigan.^[10][11] At the airport, the headquarters were in hangar space. When it was located at Ypsilanti, National Airlines had 79 employees, including administrative staff, purchasing staff, and crew schedulers, at the headquarters.^[9]

A Douglas DC-8 operated by National Airlines

On the week of January 29, 2013 the airline National Airlines completed its move from the Ypsilanti area to Orlando. The airline said that it planned to offer 105 jobs at Orlando, with 26 more than were available in Michigan. 44 of the 79 existing employees were having relocation plans. The airline wanted to move its staff into Class A office space as opposed to the previous hangar space. According to Garrett Matyas, the company's human resources director, the company originally considered Ann Arbor, Michigan and was in talks with the Michigan Economic Development Corp.^[9] Instead, Matyas said that the airline moved to Florida due to an environment friendly towards business interests.^[9] The state offered tax incentives for the Orlando location.^[9] According to Declan Reiley, the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission vice president of business development, the airline also moved to Florida because two of the owners of the company were Florida residents.^[9] The freighter and passenger divisions are involved with contract military airlift operations. The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) indefinitely postponed using National Airlines for its airlift requirements after Flight 102 crashed.^[12]

Destinations

As of February 2016, National Airlines has scheduled flights to the following destinations:

Fleet

National Airlines Boeing 757-200 passenger plane

As of October 2013, the National Airlines fleet included:^[2][13]

Accidents and incidents

The National Airlines Boeing 747-400 (N949CA) that crashed at Bagram Airfield

On April 29, 2013, at approximately 3:30 p.m. Afghanistan time (11:00 UTC), National Airlines Flight 102, a Boeing 747-400, registration N949CA, operating a charter cargo flight for Coalition forces, crashed soon after takeoff from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. All seven crew members on board died in the crash. Although Taliban spokesmen claimed responsibility for the destruction of the aircraft, initial reports based on communications from the crew after takeoff indicated that the crash probably resulted from a load shift, causing the aircraft to experience a high-aft center of gravity, becoming unstable and eventually leading to the loss of control by the pilots.^[14][15]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Airlines (N8).

• National Air Cargo
• National Airlines
• National Airlines (Archive)