North American Airlines

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Founded in 1989 by former Civil Aeronautics Board chairman Dan McKinnon, North American Airlines began flying on January 20, 1990. The Jamaica, New York carrier started in a tiny JFK Airport hangar operation, flying charter work and feeding passengers into El Al’s North American gateways. Not bad for an airline whose early headquarters setup reportedly involved a table and a chalkboard.

North American grew through the 1990s with Boeing 757s, later adding Boeing 767s for longer-haul, higher-capacity work. It flew commercial charters, military missions, wet-lease operations, and at various points scheduled international service. Its aircraft wore the straightforward, all-business North American name—a very sensible label for an airline that was usually headed somewhere farther away.

World Air Holdings acquired the privately held carrier for about $35 million on April 27, 2005, while keeping its operating certificate and JFK operational headquarters separate. In 2007, World Air Holdings was acquired by Global Aero Logistics, later renamed Global Aviation Holdings; North American’s corporate office moved into that Peachtree City, Georgia orbit.

After Global Aviation’s financial troubles and bankruptcy proceedings, North American ceased operations in June 2014. The flight plans stopped, the 757-and-767 era ended, and another distinctly post-deregulation American airline became a boarding-pass-sized memory.

Our North American Airlines collection celebrates the plucky JFK charter carrier that went from hangar chalkboard to global missions—proof that aviation history is full of companies that flew hard, flew far, and eventually vanished into the contrail.