Presidential Airways
Presidential Airways is an American charter cargo and passenger airline that Erik PrinceErik PrinceErik Prince (Erik D. Prince, born 1969) is an American entrepreneur, private investor and former U.S. Navy SEAL officer. He founded Blackwater USA in 1997 and bought Presidential Airways in 2003, sold both businesses in 2010, and later founded the private equity firm Frontier Resource Group.Open the full entry bought in 2003. It became part of BlackwaterBlackwater USABlackwater USA is a security and training services company founded in North Carolina in 1997 by Erik Prince and Gary Jackson. It was renamed Blackwater Worldwide in 2007 and Xe in 2009, was acquired by the investor group USTC Holdings in 2010, became Academi in 2011, and was brought under Constellis in 2014.Open the full entry’s aviation business, Aviation Worldwide Services, providing fixed- and rotary-wing airlift for U.S. government customers, and was sold with AWS to AAR Corp. in 2010, after which the business operated as AAR Airlift.
Contents10 sections
Key facts
Name: Distinction from a Namesake Airline
A separate Presidential Airways, a passenger airline headquartered at Washington Dulles International Airport, operated from 1985 to 1989 and had no connection to the Florida-based charter airline described here.[1]
2003Purchase by Erik Prince
Erik Prince bought Presidential Airways in 2003. In his 2015 listed-company director biography, he described growing it from a one-plane operation into a global logistics and aviation business with more than 70 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft operating in Africa, the Middle East and North America, and selling it in 2010.[2]
2004–2008Central Asian Airlift Contracts
In September 2004 Presidential Airways of Melbourne, Florida, received a $34.8 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for fixed-wing short take-off and landing airlift in the Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan area. In September 2007, listed in Moyock, North Carolina, it won a competitively procured $92 million contract for passenger, cargo and combi STOL air transport in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, with performance from October 2007 to September 2011. In 2008 it received a $50.9 million contract for heavy-lift fixed-wing airlift and a $10.3 million modification adding two Dash 8 aircraft.[3]
2008Fleet and Parent Company
As of 2008 Presidential Airways was a charter cargo and passenger airline within Blackwater’s aviation business, Aviation Worldwide Services, alongside fellow AWS subsidiaries STI Aviation and Air Quest; it operated several CASA 212 aircraft and a BoeingBoeingBoeing is an American company that provides commercial airplanes, defense and space systems, and aviation services, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Open the full entry 767.[4]
February 2009Scale of Aviation Support
When Blackwater adopted the Xe name in February 2009, its aviation support business had a fleet of 76 aircraft deployed to places such as West Africa and Afghanistan.[5]
March–April 2010: Sale to AAR with AWS
On March 25, 2010, AAR Corp. announced the purchase of Aviation Worldwide Services from Xe Services LLC for $200 million. Through its subsidiaries Presidential Airways and STI Aviation, AWS provided fixed- and rotary-wing flight operations and rotary-wing aircraft modifications, operating 58 customized aircraft, of which 17 fixed-wing and 21 rotary-wing aircraft were deployed and 20 rotary-wing aircraft were available for future deployment.[6]
The purchase also included EP Aviation, which leased aircraft to AWS.[7]
The deal closed on April 7, 2010. AWS held Federal Aviation Administration Part 133 and Part 135 operating certificates and a Part 145 repair station certificate, with operations principally in Afghanistan, Northern Africa and the Western Pacific.[8]
November 2010Afghanistan Rotary-Wing Contract
In November 2010 Presidential Airways, an Aviation Worldwide Services company of Camden, North Carolina, received a $94,367,844 option-year modification to provide rotary-wing passenger and cargo air transportation in Afghanistan from November 1, 2010, to October 31, 2011.[9]
2010–2011Move to Florida as AAR Airlift
In November 2010 AAR announced that the airlift and aircraft modifications businesses it had acquired would move to Melbourne, Florida, and operate as AAR Airlift Group, with airlift services provided by AAR Airlift, under the leadership of former U.S. Army Major General Jeffrey Schloesser. The phased move was expected to be completed by spring 2011 and to create as many as 225 jobs by the end of 2012.[10]
The move affected about 225 jobs in northeastern North Carolina.[11]
2012AAR Airlift
As of 2012 AAR Airlift provided expeditionary airlift and specialized aircraft modifications to government and defense customers, and AAR described it as the largest independent provider of airlift for the U.S. Government and its allies in Afghanistan.[12]
Sources
- Presidential Airways | Archives Public Interface (opens in a new window)
- Annual Report 2014 (opens in a new window)
- USA: Fixed-Wing Transport Contracts for the Central Asian Front (opens in a new window)
- Blackwater as Wal-Mart (opens in a new window)
- Blackwater Security Changes Name to Friendlier "Xe" (opens in a new window)
- AAR CORP. TO ACQUIRE AVIATION WORLDWIDE SERVICES (opens in a new window)
- Aviation Worldwide Services Acquired by AAR (opens in a new window)
- AAR Corp. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 (opens in a new window)
- Presidential Airways wins $94M of Afghanistan transportation work (opens in a new window)
- AAR to Relocate Airlift Group to Melbourne, Florida (opens in a new window)
- Owner Of Former Blackwater Aviation Leaving NC (opens in a new window)
- AAR Airlift Wins Prestigious Florida Governor's Award (opens in a new window)