The airline was established in 1985 and started operations in December 1986. It began with
Mitsubishi MU-2 aircraft, which it developed for cargo use. In April 2005, Murray Air and its sister company, Murray Aviation, merged operations under
Murray Airs newly acquired Part 121 certificate. In December 2008, after the airline was acquired by
National Air Cargo, Murray Air changed its name to National Airlines, and operates under the National Air Cargo Group, Inc. umbrella. National Airlines previously operated scheduled charter passenger flights from
Oakland County International Airport to
Kokomo Municipal Airport in
Kokomo, Indiana;
Chicago Rockford International Airport in
Rockford, Illinois;
Spirit of St. Louis Airport in
St. Louis, Missouri; and
Toronto Pearson International Airport in
Toronto,
Ontario, Canada (with some flights making intermediate stops at
Willow Run Airport in
Ypsilanti, Michigan). Flights were focused on
Chrysler Corporation employees, but the airline also sold seats on those flights to the general public. These flights were operated by
Saab 340 and
BAe Jetstream 31 propjet aircraft in 30-seat and 19-seat configurations, respectively. This service is no longer operational. On the cargo side, National Airlines operated two
Douglas DC-8-63CFs (N921R/N865F) and one
Douglas DC-8-71F (N872CA) on scheduled and charter operations worldwide, and later replaced one of the DC-8-63CF's with a
DC-8-73F (N155CA). In April 2009, the carrier began cargo flights from Ypsilanti, Michigan, to
Bagram Air Force Base in
Afghanistan; the flights were extended to
Kandahar International Airport in August of that year. This service was discontinued in 2010, with the last working flight for the DC-8 with National taking place in May 2012. During the summer of 2010, the airline purchased three
Boeing 747-400BCFs. These aircraft were operated for the airline by
Air Atlanta Icelandic initially, before being registered in the United States in 2011. In May 2011, National leased a
Boeing 757-200 in an all-passenger configuration and began operating the aircraft in an on-demand charter basis from Dubai. The airline added a second Boeing 757 during the spring of 2013 that was also used for charters in Dubai. . Originally based at
Willow Run Airport in
Ypsilanti, Michigan, the company moved in 2012 to
Orlando, Florida. In December 2014, the company filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to halt a $9.9 million judgment against the company. In September, 2015, National announced scheduled passenger service from its hub at
Orlando Sanford International Airport using their two active 757s. They announced destinations that include
St. John's International Airport in
St. John's, Newfoundland and
Labrador, Canada;
Windsor International Airport in Windsor,
Ontario, Canada;
Vancouver International Airport in
Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada; and
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. In March 2016, National was slated to start 757 service from
Long Island MacArthur Airport in
Ronkonkoma, NY to
Puerto Rico. However the service was delayed, then cancelled and never operated due to "lack of aircraft." ==Corporate affairs==