Floridair Airlines
3rd In A Series: A Fictional US Charter and Scheduled Airline Based In Florida
Floridair Airlines is a scheduled and charter passenger airline, headquartered on the grounds of Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL) in Kendall, Florida USA.
Fort Lauderdale-FLL serves as the company’s primary center of operations, from which Floridair operates a mix of worldwide commercial and ad hoc charter flights from 12 Florida airports, along with scheduled flights from three Florida cities to several destinations in the United States, Canada and Europe. The company formerly operated charter and ad hoc cargo services as well, but those services ended in 2009.
History
Early Years 1970-1985
Floridair Airlines was established in 1970 by Charles K Crockett, a scion of the Crockett family of Florida hoteliers and real estate types who had recently returned from military service in Vietnam as an infantry officer; and Roy Flagler, a Florida-born military pilot Mr Crockett had befriended while they were serving together overseas. Both men were known to have a taste for strong drink, but Mr Flagler was especially fond of the bottle and partying.
When the two men returned from Vietnam, they persuaded members of the Crockett family to provide seed money to start an airline, which was used to acquire a second-hand Boeing 727-100 and a leased Douglas DC-8. They had plans to initiate scheduled flights between Florida and certain major cities in the northeastern USA, and possibly to London as well. The carrier’s original was Floridian Airlines.
Messrs Crockett and Flagler spent two years contending with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a US government agency that regulated aviation services at that time including scheduled passenger airline service and air mail service, in an effort to obtain clearances to fly scheduled routes. The company was repeatedly blocked at every turn, until they gave up on scheduled service and decided to instead enter the less-regulated air charter business. The company sought to provide airline services to travel clubs and tour companies flying tourists into Florida. Many of these visitors would be encouraged to stay at the Crockett family’s array of Florida hotel properties.
The CAB finally gave approval to Floridair’s air operator’s certificate (AOC) as a charter operator, and the company renamed itself as Floridair at the suggestion of a friend.
Floridair began charter operations from its Fort Lauderdale-FLL base in the spring of 1972. Typically the carrier would use their DC-8 - which Roy Flagler personally flew in those days - to bring in affluent holidaymakers from Europe, while the Boeing 727-100 brought in similarly well-heeled vacationers from Chicago-MDW, New York-LGA, and Boston-BOS. Most of the flights terminated back at Fort Lauderdale-FLL, but some were routed directly to Miami-MIA,Orlando-MCO, or to Palm Beach-PBI when necessary or desired.
By 1976 the company began to branch out and provide air charter services beyond the travel club sector, and Floridair replaced the original 727-100 with three new Boeing 727-200s and added a new Boeing 707-320B. The 707 allowed the charter carrier to extend its reach further into Europe, as well as to the US West Coast and South America.
1980s: Fleet Changes and Establishment of Cargo Operations
In 1985 Floridair overhauled its fleet. They removed their 727s from the active fleet and began to wet-lease them to other airlines, and took delivery of several Boeing 757-200s. The company also instituted a branding and livery change, migrating away from its original, somewhat retro brand name to a more modern (for the 1980s) look.
In 1987 Floridair removed their DC-8 and 707 from active Floridair passenger service and replaced them with a pair of new Boeing 767-300s to handle longer and busier routes. The DC-8 and 707 were in turn converted into freighters to create a dedicated cargo operations division, Floridair Cargo, to be based at Fort Lauderdale-FLL. Over time the company also recycled its 727s into converted freighters and added them to the profitable cargo unit.
Departure of Roy Flagler; Switching to Boeing 737NG
In 1994, company co-founder Roy Flagler decided to sell his interest in Floridair to Charlie Crockett and depart the company. The split was mostly amicable, and Mr Crockett used the occasion to buy out other family members’ remaining shares and become the sole owner of the airline.
For his own part, in 1997 Mr Flagler went on to start up his own airline, Flagler Air, which operated scheduled flights between Miami-MIA and the Caribbean using older aircraft. Mr Flagler’s life after Floridair was fairly prosperous, though reportedly fueled by raucous parties typically involving copious quantities of hookers and blow.
Mr Flagler mysteriously disappeared in 2010 while flying with a pair of girlfriends in a private plane between Miami Executive-TMB «» South Bimini-BIM in the Bahamas. Just after the plane left US air space it abruptly dropped off radar screens, despite fair weather conditions and no indication of any mechanical problems. Despite a comprehensive search, neither the aircraft nor its occupants were ever found. In the years since there has been speculation that perhaps Mr Flagler and his companions wanted to disappear and never be found.
Flagler Air was bought out in late 2010 by a private equity firm who retained the brand name, but transformed the airline into a very profitable yet very penurious ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC).
Late 1990s-Early 2000s
From 1995, Floridair began ordering Boeing 737-700s and Boeing 737-800s to use within the US and Canada, receiving their first examples of each in 1998 and 1999, respectively.
In late 2001, following the 11 September 2001 Terrorist Attacks, the airline began to phase out its older Boeing 757-200s and convert them into Boeing 757-200SF freighters, which were then reassigned to the company’s Floridair Cargo subsidiary. They in turn retired their remaining Boeing 727-200CF and Douglas DC-8-53CF freighters, while retaining their Douglas DC-8-73F and Boeing 707-320CF freighters.
In 2003 the carrier’s first Boeing 767-300ERs was also refitted as a Boeing 767-300BCF.
Introduction of Scheduled Air Service
A few days after Christmas in 2004, Charlie Crockett and his teenaged granddaughter, Olivia Crockett (later known as Olivia Crockett-Galanis), were deep sea fishing together off the coast of Key West, Florida when young Olivia suggested that Floridair should offer not just chartered flights, but also regularly scheduled air service. Charlie, who was happy with the present arrangement and sometimes averse to change, disagreed. But young Olivia, known to be a bit headstrong, persisted until Charlie - remembering that Floridair was originally going to be a scheduled airline - finally agreed with her that maybe the time had come to start daily scheduled flights to and from places like New York-LGA for example.
As a result of this discussion, in early 2005 Floridair finally entered the scheduled air service market as something of a low cost carrier (LCC), initially setting up daily nonstop service between Miami-MIA «» New York-LGA, MIA «» Chicago-MDW, Orlando-MCO «» LGA and MCO «» MDW using the Boeing 737-800s. The move proved to be highly popular and very lucrative for the company, so Mr Crockett began to look at replacements for the company’s 767s, settling on the recently announced Boeing 787 as the solution. He placed orders for three of them.
Charlie Crockett’s Death
During the fall of 2005, Charlie Crockett became ill and was forced to hand over day to day control of the airline to Ken Hewett, who had replaced Roy Flagler as the company’s COO (chief operating officer) and Chief Pilot. A few months later in early 2006, Mr Crockett passed away due to complications following what should have been a routine medical procedure.
In his will, Mr Crockett passed all control of the airline over to his then-18 year old granddaughter, who would take over the company in 2013 at her 25th birthday. Until then, Mr Hewett was to serve as CEO while Ms Crockett attended college and received appropriate executive training.
2006-2013: Ken Hewett Era
The 50 year old Mr Hewett, a 25 year veteran of Floridair who started out flying Boeing 727-200s for the airline back in the 1980s, began his tenure as CEO by adding more destinations to Floridair’s modest portfolio of scheduled routes. By Autumn 2006 he added scheduled routes between Miami-MIA and Orlando-MCO «» London-LGW, Dublin-DUB, Paris-ORL and and Frankfurt-FRA. Within North America, he also set up scheduled routes, beginning with MIA and MCO «» Dallas-DFW, Houston-IAH, Boston-BOS and Philadelphia.
In 2008, Floridair began taking delivery of several Boeing 737-900ERs, most of them going to the scheduled services fleet to replace 737-700s and 737-800s that were in turn added to the charter fleet. Later 737-900ERs were added to charter flight operations as well.
Meanwhile, service between MIA «» Washington-DCA and MCO «» DCA were added in 2008 after a protracted bid to obtain the necessary takeoff and landing slots at the slot-regulated DCA. Scheduled service between MIA and MCO «» Toronto-YYZ was added in 2009, and MIA and MCO «» Denver-DEN joined the scheduled route network in 2011.
Great Recession and Cargo Division Selloff
When financial headwinds arrived due to the Great Recession of 2008-2009, Mr Hewett responded by looking for ways to quickly reduce costs. In early 2009 he retired the last of the airline’s Boeing 757-200 passenger jets, as well as the company’s now-vintage Boeing 707-320CF and Douglas DC-8-73CF and Douglas DC-8-53CF freighters, while also cutting back on scheduled routes that were not sufficiently profitable.
During the summer of 2009, Mr Hewett arranged to sell off Floridair’s entire cargo division to PDQ Express Aviation (now known as PDQ Aviation). This gave PDQ a more significant presence in southern Florida while infusing Floridair with some much needed cash. Because of the sale, Floridair managed to tough out the Great Recession and its lingering after effects without having to lay off a single employee.
Looking to reinvigorate Floridair’s fleet, during the Farnborough Air Show in 2012 Mr Hewett placed early orders for the recently launched Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Boeing 737 MAX 9. It was a very substantial order, intended to replace the company’s entire fleet of existing 737NGs while giving the company an opportunity to further expand its scheduled and charter operations.
In April 2013, honoring his commitment to Charlie Crockett, Ken Hewett resigned as CEO of Floridair when Mr Crockett’s granddaughter, Olivia Crockett-Galanis, reached her 25th birthday - thereby making Ms Crockett-Galanis the youngest airline chief executive in 85 years. Mr Hewett quietly resumed his former role as COO.
2013: Olivia Crockett-Galanis Becomes CEO
As a child, Olivia Crockett-Galanis loved to visit the cockpits of the company’s Boeing aircraft - especially the older Boeing 727 trijets, but also the company’s venerable Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 freighters. Ms Crockett-Galanis was also impressed with the Boeing 767s, which she occasionally flew on between Miami and various European cities. Often she would help the cabin crew serve passengers, and she enjoyed spending time riding in the cockpit jump seat, where she would watch the pilots go about their work executing takeoffs and landings.
Such visits were appreciated by both cockpit and cabin crews, who willingly shared their knowledge and experiences with her wherever she flew in those days. Having already received her private pilot’s license at age 17, at the suggestion of Ken Hewett Ms Crockett-Galanis went on to obtain her commercial pilot’s license at age 20 and then acquire her Airline Transport Pilot certificate at the age of 24.
Having completed college and gotten married, when Ms Crokett-Galanis turned 25 in April 2013 she became President and CEO of Floridair Airlines, per the wishes of her late grandfather. Following Charlie Crockett’s advice given shortly before his death, Ms Crockett-Galanis did not take any major decisions as CEO during her first year without first consulting with the more experienced Mr Hewett. In the meantime she continued to visit regularly with company employees at all levels, and she encouraged them to share their concerns and suggestions with her.
Replacement of Boeing 767s with Airbus A350s
Ms Crokett-Galanis started things off by offering new scheduled routes between Miami-MIA and Orlando-MCO «» Los Angeles-LAX and San Francisco-SFO. She also added Fort Myers-RSW as a new focus city for scheduled air service from a select of eastern US cities, starting with RSW «» Chicago-MDW and RSW «» Toronto-YYZ.
However, the 2013 groundings of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which had been in service only two years at that time, suddenly became a prominent issue for her.
In line with the company’s historic practices, Ms Crockett-Galanis had always been generally pro-Boeing, and as CEO she was not inclined to consider adopting other types of aircraft. As Charlie Crockett would say, “Let’s not go fixing things that aren’t broken.”
However, after paying a visit to Boeing’s factories in and around the Seattle area during the spring of 2013 to meet their executives and discuss rescheduling the delivery of Floridair’s 787 aircraft, Ms Crockett-Galanis became concerned about some of Boeing’s cultural tendencies on display during her visit. Although she still liked the 737NG generation of aircraft, she became more circumspect about the 787 and the problems the type was experiencing.
After considerable thought, Ms Crockett-Galanis decided she would go against the company’s history and not Boeing as its longer haul wide-body aircraft provider. In the spring of 2014, acting against the advice of Mr Hewett and despite an enticing counter offer made by Boeing, Ms Crockett-Galanis formally rejected plans to order Boeing 787s and instead signed a lease with JetStream Aerospace to acquire three Airbus A350-900s.
Just over a year later JetStream delivered the first A350 to Floridair, and the 2nd aircraft arrived later in 2015. Both aircraft began flying on scheduled routes to Europe, and the company’s 767s were retired. The 3rd and final A350 arrived during the summer of 2016, and began servicing charter flights to Europe, Asia, and South America, as well as to further flung cities like Johannesburg-JNB and Sydney-SYD. This 3rd A350 proved to be particularly profitable for Floridair.
Though he disagreed with Ms Crockett-Galanis’s decision to adopt the A350, Mr Hewett concluded that she was more than capable of running the company on her own, and he quietly retired in October 2016. He currently lives at his ease in South Bimini in the Bahamas.
2019: Boeing 737 MAX Order Cancelled; Migration to Airbus
Floridair was set to receive the first of several Boeing 737 MAX 8s during the summer of 2019. Despite her growing dissatisfaction with Boeing at the time, Ms Crockett-Galanis went against those sentiments and held firm to the 737 MAX orders that were previously set forth by the now-retired Mr Hewett. She set about planning for the company to receive them accordingly.
However, in March 2019, two similar crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8 resulted in the grounding of all 737 MAX aircraft. After the 2nd crash occurred, Ms Crockett-Galanis again reached out to JetStream Aerospace, this time to discuss how to go about migrating the company fleet over to Airbus jets.
At the 2019 Paris Air Show, the company abruptly announced plans to cancel all of its Boeing orders and signed firm agreements with JetStream to facilitate a migration over to the Airbus A320neo family of aircraft. The company also placed orders with Airbus directly for another 6 of the new, groundbreaking Airbus A321XLR aircraft, which was scheduled to begin its deliveries during the 2020s.
2020s
The Covid19 pandemic forced Floridair to store away a large portion of the company’s Boeing 737 fleet as well as all of its Boeing 767s and Airbus A350s. It also forced the carrier to push back delivery of its previously ordered Airbus jets. Acting on some timely advice provided by Mr Hewett, Ms Crockett-Galanis offered long-established company employees generous early retirements and closed out some positions through attrition, in a bid to avoid widespread layoffs. She also sent several of the stored 737-800s and 767s to undergo freighter conversions, which were then wet-leased out to cargo and package delivery companies. These actions helped the company to bring in more income while it also kept its employees busy.
In early 2021 the first Airbus A319neos and Airbus A320neos were delivered, and the company received its three Airbus A321LRs later the same year, while the carrier’s Boeing 767 freighters were sold off. As operations gradually resumed under Covid restrictions, Floridair was able to resume nearly all of its scheduled flights and routes. However the carrier had to end flights between Miami-MIA and Orlando-MCO «» Paris-CDG and Frankfurt-FRA, which were just beyond the effective operating range of the new A321LRs. The company’s A350s soon resumed charter operations in turn.
Although some deliveries of the new Airbus aircraft were further delayed for various reasons, by 2024 all of Floridair’s Boeing 737-800s and Boeing 737-900s had been replaced by Airbus aircraft. Only a couple of Boeing 737-700s still remain in the fleet, and they are scheduled to be removed by the end of 2024, thereby making Floridair the all-Airbus airline Ms Crockett-Galanis had previously envisioned.
Destinations
Scheduled Service
Floridair provides regular scheduled air service to the following airports within the USA and Canada.
Boston-BOS
Chicago-MDW
Dallas/Ft Worth-DFW
Denver-DEN
Fort Myers-RSW - Focus City
Houston-IAH
Los Angeles-LAX
Miami-MIA - Focus City
New York-LGA
Orlando-MCO - Focus City
Philadelphia-PHL
San Francisco-SFO
Toronto-YYZ
Washington-DCA
Additionally, the following cities in Europe see daily scheduled flights to and from Miami-MIA and Orlando-MCO.
Dublin-DUB
London-LGW
Charter Services
In addition to Miami-MIA and Orlando-MCO, Floridair also provides scheduled charter flights to the following airports within Florida.
Daytona Beach-DAB
Destin-Fort Walton Beach-VPS
Fort Lauderdale-FLL
Fort Myers-RSW
Key West-EYW
Melbourne-MLB
Miami-MIA
Orlando-MCO
Panama City-ECP
Sarasota-SRQ
Tampa-TPA
West Palm Beach-PBI
Fleet
Current Fleet
The current Floridair Airlines fleet includes these aircraft types.
Airbus A319neo - 2021-Present
Airbus A320neo - 2021-Present
Airbus A321LR - 2021-Present
Airbus A350-900 - 2015-Present
Boeing 737-700 - 1998-Present - Retiring Late 2024
Former Fleet: Floridair (Passenger Fleet)
Floridair Airlines previously operated the following passenger aircraft types.
Boeing 707-320B - 1976-1987
Boeing 727-100 - 1972-1976
Boeing 727-200 - 1976-1999
Boeing 737-800 - 1999-2024
Boeing 737-900ER - 2008-2024
Boeing 757-200 - 1985-2009
Boeing 767-300ER - 1987-2021
Douglas DC-8-53 - 1972-1987
Douglas DC-8-73 - 1972-1987
Former Fleet: Floridair Cargo
Floridair Cargo previously utilized the following freighter aircraft types during its years of operation from 1987 to 2009.
Boeing 707-320CF - 1987-2009
Boeing 727—200CF - 1987-1999
Boeing 757-200SF - 2002-2009
Boeing 767-300BCF - 2002-2009
Douglas DC-8-53CF - 1987-2009
Douglas DC-8-73CF - 1987-2009
= Nota Bene =
Floridair isn’t inspired by any real life airline. Air Florida and Florida Airlines provided a bit of insight about airlines historically based in Florida, but that was it.
No, Charlie Crockett was not a character on Miami Vice. That guy was named James “Sonny” Crockett. No relation.
Charlie Crockett’s portrait originally showed him manspreading in a big way, but I figured an official company portrait probably wouldn’t want to depict their boss like that so I trimmed it.
Observant readers may notice that Floridair’s flamingo logo evolves over time, from 1) a cartoonish looking 1970s dork-flamingo, to 2) a less cartoonish 1985-2014 flamingo, to 3) a very pretty and more realistic looking post-2014 flamingo depicted like the various animal mascots seen on modern day Frontier Airlines aircraft. Olivia Crockett-Galanis obviously played a role in the 2014 livery redesign. A woman with good branding instincts can do amazing things.
About the fonts…
The original 1972 brand name uses the Bank Gothic Std Medium font by Bitstream and now owned by Monotype (which also runs MyFonts.com).
The 1985 brand name uses the Futura PT Bold Oblique font by Paratype.
The 2014 brand name uses the Royal Palms Signature font, an absolutely gorgeous font by Set Sail Studios.
You can purchase these fonts either directly from their respective studio or foundry or from MyFonts.com.Olivia Crockett-Galanis’s sudden turn against Boeing probably wouldn’t be something most airline executives would do so quickly IRL, but a young CEO acting on instinct might. So she did.
I’m not particularly anti-Boeing, BTW. I recently flew to Mexico and back on Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft - the very same type that experienced the door plug blowout back in January 2024 - and I had no stress at all about flying on on it. (We did decide not to sit in the exit rows, though…) This story is fictional, airline executives sometimes have strong opinions about fleet management, and in this case Olivia Crockett-Galanis happened to become anti-Boeing. C’est la vie.
Having said that, I think it’s incredibly important for Boeing to figure out how to overcome its management and quality control problems, and get back to its engineering roots. Duopolies might suck but monopolies are much worse, and competition tends to foster innovation.While I had fun writing up the article for this airline, it also showed me that writing about legacy airlines with longer histories can have their challenges, especially when they require lots of aircraft templates and portraits like this one did.
Going forward, I’ll try to alternate articles between bigger/older airlines and newer/smaller airlines, to help even things out a bit.
All liveries depicted in this article were conceived and drawn by the Author.
All aircraft templates shown in this article were purchased from Norebbo under license and augmented by the Author for display. Blank side view templates of these aircraft are available for purchase through ShopNorebbo.
Route Maps were created using Great Circle Map.