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 11 Sept 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. Meanwhile in large part due to the huge jump in military business, Miami Air's passenger business thrived and the company grew to 8 Boeing 737-800s and 2 passenger Boeing 727s by 2005. At that time one of the existing shareholders (TSI Holding Company) expressed a desire to purchase the entire company and bought out the other EGL consortium and remaining original shareholders.
For some time, Miami Air International with its Boeing 737-800s remained an ad hoc charterer with a wide customer base. The military, sports teams, cruise lines, tour operators and incentive groups were the main customers. Its operations were worldwide covering every continent except Antarctica[citation needed]. The Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers secured charter services for the 2017 season.
Miami Air International was wholly owned by TSI Holdings and had 405 employees (at March 2007). The airline's IATA code was changed from GL to LL due to Air Greenland's use of the same code; Air Greenland was the first one to use the code.
On March 24, 2020, Miami Air International filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection and ceased operations on May 8, 2020. All leased aircraft from TUI fly Belgium were returned to Brussels.
Tomas Romero, the owner of World Atlantic Airlines, acquired Miami Air International including all of its certificates and trademarks in late May for USD3.3 million, during a bankruptcy auction. Presently the airline does not exist in any practicle sense.
