Global Crossing Airlines, a hybrid passenger-cargo charter airline based in Miami, on Thursday was the first commercial airline to fly into Haiti since warring gangs closed the main airport in Port-au-Prince in early March. The Airbus A321 converted cargo jet carried U.S. State Department humanitarian aid for the ravaged country.
Coordinated gang attacks on institutions and residents have paralyzed the Caribbean nation since late February, worsening difficult living conditions and creating tens of thousands of refugees from the capital. Aid agencies are warning of potential famine. A new transitional governing council took office Thursday after Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was out of the country when the attacks started, resigned.
The Global Crossing (GlobalX) flight, which carried material and equipment for the local police force, was operated on behalf of the State Department and coordinated by U.S. Southern Command, which also brought in a C-130 Air Force plane with 20 pallets of oral rehydration fluid, the Miami Herald reported.
The startup airline also completed more than 50 passenger evacuation flights out of Cape Haitian earlier in the crisis. It was one of the first carriers to deliver relief supplies to Israel last October in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack.
The charter operator launched commercial service in August 2021 and now has 11 A320-family narrowbody passenger jets and four A321 converted freighters in its fleet. Freighter operations began in early summer 2023.
Two of the cargo jets are temporarily inactive but should resume commercial service this week, President and CFO Ryan Goepel said via email.
In February, the company said it would focus investments on growing the passenger fleet because hot demand from sports teams, government agencies, tour operators and other groups offered a quicker path to profitability while cargo demand remained lukewarm following a lengthy market downturn.
Revenue last year increased by two-thirds from 2022 as GlobalX added more aircraft. The company lost $21 million, but earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and rent increased fourfold to $20 million, a way to measure operational performance by removing variable lease costs for aircraft.
Management indicated during a March 6 earnings briefing that one of its freighters was parked for two months to have a door repaired.
Goepel told FreightWaves the cargo door was not sealing properly to allow it to stay pressurized. The used passenger jet was reconfigured for cargo service by 321 Precision Conversions, a Florida-based joint venture between engineering firm Precision Aircraft Solutions and vertically integrated Air Transport Services Group (NASDAQ: ATSG).
The aircraft was fixed in March, but GlobalX took advantage of having the plane at a repair facility to also conduct a routine major aircraft maintenance inspection that typically takes several weeks to complete, he said. An agreement was negotiated with the lessor to compensate GlobalX for lost revenue while the aircraft was out of service.
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