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Amerijet International

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Amerijet International
IATA ICAO Call sign
M6 AJT AMERIJET
Founded1974
AOC #PCSA059B[1]
Hubs
Fleet size12
Destinations48[citation needed]
HeadquartersMiami, Florida, United States
Key people
Websiteamerijet.com

Amerijet International Airlines, Inc. is an American cargo airline headquartered in Miami, United States. The airline delivers air freight with its fleet of Boeing 757s and Boeing 767s from its main hub at the Miami International Airport to 48 destinations throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. Their network spans 476 destinations throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.[4]

History

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A former Amerijet Dassault Falcon 20 at Louisville International Airport in 1994

The airline was established and started operations in 1974. It was founded by David Bassett (Chairman and Chief Executive) and a partner with a leased Cessna 401, operating passenger and cargo services between the US and the Bahamas. In 1976, Amerijet became a freight only carrier. In late 1978, courier contracts were taken from Purolator, FedEx, UPS, DHL and Airborne Express in the early 1980s. In 1982, Bassett bought out his partner and created Amerijet International.

The main services that Amerijet offers are general cargo shipping, pharmaceutical shipping, perishable shipping, oversized load shipping, live animal transport, and charter services. Among their airfreight operation, Amerijet also provides trucking services, including expedited delivery. Throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America, Amerijet offers last mile delivery for commercial customers.[4]

Amerijet has been a target internationally of animal rights activists for their transportation of animals for experimentation purposes in later years, particularly in conjunction with the Miami-based company Primate Products. Amerijet has been coming under increasing pressure in South Florida, with monthly demonstrations in front of its Fort Lauderdale office, and some of Amerijet's upper management have even been protested at their homes. To date, two activists have been arrested in front of Amerijet's office. On Valentine's Day 2011, Amerijet ended their involvement in the primate trade with these words, "Amerijet has ceased transporting primates for any and all purposes."[5]

Amerijet operated under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from August 22 until December 31, 2001, from which it emerged after financial restructuring.[6][7] Amerijet International was majority-owned by H.I.G. from 2001 to 2016.[8] On July 26, 2016, H.I.G. Capital completed the sale of Amerijet, the Miami-based all-cargo carrier to private equity firm ZS Fund L.P. Amerijet's new CEO, Vicken L. Karjian joined the company in July 2016.[9] Amerijet and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters reached an agreement on September 14, 2009, on a new four-year labor contract covering flight crew employees.[10]

In July 2022, Maersk announced that they had reached a CMI agreement with Amerijet to operate three of their new Boeing 767-300 Freighters. Maersk will take delivery of three 767-300Fs from Boeing and outsource their operation to Amerijet. The aircraft were originally ordered by Longhao Airlines, but were never delivered to them.[11][12] Maersk has said the aircraft would be used for trans-pacific flights.[13]

In January 2024, Amerijet said it is returning six Boeing 757-200PCF freighters to lessors, laying off nonpilot personnel and securing $55 million in capital from existing lenders as part of a restructuring aimed at stabilizing faltering finances and operations. The company will also defer agreements to add additional Boeing 767 cargo jets to improve cash flow.[3]

Fleet

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Current fleet

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An Amerijet Boeing 767-200BDSF at Miami International Airport in 2011
An Amerijet Boeing 767-300ER/BDSF at Miami International Airport in 2016

The Amerijet International fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of August 2024):[14][verification needed]

Amerijet International fleet
Aircraft In
service
Orders Notes
Boeing 767-300ER/BDSF 18 all ex-passenger aircraft.
Boeing 767-300F 3 Operating for Maersk.[15]
Total 21

Former fleet

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The airline operated the following aircraft:[16]

Amerijet International former fleet
Aircraft Total Introduced Retired Notes
Airbus A321-200/P2F 2 2021 2022 Operated by Titan Airways.[17]
Boeing 727-100F 11 1985 1998
Boeing 727-200F 22 1989 2018
Boeing 757-200PCF 6 2021 2024 Returned to their lessors.[18]
Boeing 767-200BDSF 8 2010 2024
Bombardier Challenger 601 1 2003 2004
Cessna Citation I/SP 1 1987 2000
Cessna 401A 1 1978 2005
Dassault Falcon 20 9 1983 2001
Learjet 35A 2 1999 2002

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Federal Aviation Administration - Airline Certificate Information - Detail View". av-info.faa.gov. Federal Aviation Administration. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
  2. ^ "Amerijet appoints Eric J. Wilson as new Chief Commercial Officer". Prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Cargo airline Amerijet in distress sale, terminates 6 aircraft leases". ch-aviation. 10 January 2024. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  4. ^ a b "About Amerijet". Amerijet International. Amerijet. Archived from the original on 2018-10-30. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  5. ^ Mooney, Michael J. (Feb 14, 2011). "Amerijet Says It Will Stop Shipping Monkeys". Broward County New Times. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  6. ^ "Amerijet International - Evergreen Aviation". 3 April 2016.
  7. ^ Mann, Joseph (4 October 2001). "AMERIJET TO GET $1M INFUSION". Sun-Sentinel.com.
  8. ^ "H.I.G. Capital". higcapital.com.
  9. ^ "Amerijet gets new owner and new CEO as founder bows out". The Loadstar. 2016-07-27. Archived from the original on 2019-04-10. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  10. ^ "IBT Local 769". Teamsters Local 769. Archived from the original on 2002-10-12. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  11. ^ Kulisch, Eric (2022-07-22). "Shipping line Maersk taps Amerijet for trans-Pacific air cargo expansion". FreightWaves. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  12. ^ "Shipping line Maersk outsources new cargo jets to Amerijet". Transport Magazine. 2022-07-22. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  13. ^ "Denmark's Maersk selects Amerijet for B767 CMI ops". ch-aviation. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  14. ^ "Global Airline Guide 2016 (Part Two)". Airliner World (November 2016): 37.
  15. ^ "Shipping line Maersk taps Amerijet for trans-Pacific air cargo expansion". Freightwaves.com. 22 July 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  16. ^ "Aircraft and Fleet Lists - ch-aviation.ch". archive.vn. 2013-01-15. Archived from the original on 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  17. ^ "Amerijet leases Titan Airways Airbus A321 P2F". Scramble.nl. February 14, 2021.
  18. ^ Damian Brett (January 11, 2024). "Amerijet offloads freighters and restructures". Aircargonews.net.
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