Founded by William Ford and Richard Martel[2] It was formerly known as Emerald Valley Airlines which in 1981 was flying wholly within the state of Texas with scheduled passenger service to Austin, Houston, McAllen and San Antonio.
[5][6] Emerald began operating scheduled cargo flights, which fed Purolator Courier's Columbus, Ohio hub, in October 1978.
Emerald Air also independently operated scheduled passenger flights primarily within the state of Texas and also briefly to Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma during the early and mid-1980s.
[4] According to the October 1, 1989 edition of the Official Airline Guide (OAG), Emerald Air was operating nonstop DC-9 jet service between Newport News (PHF) and Orlando (MCO) twice a week.
[11] Emerald Air operated a small fleet of the following jet and turboprop aircraft types:[12] This article relating to a United States airline is a stub.