Hollis Harris's 51-year career began in 1954 as a transportation agent at Delta while taking full-time classes in aeronautical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Due to several disagreements with the Board about how the airline should be restructured, Harris resigned from Continental in September 1991 and joined Air Canada as Chairman, President, and CEO in 1992.

Harris's cancer disappeared without a medical explanation, and his father became a Methodist minister, serving in this position for over fifty years.

During his time with the airline industry, Hollis Harris was an avid traveler, visiting all seven continents and playing golf with celebrities such as U.S. President Gerald Ford and astronaut Neil Armstrong.

A member of Conquistadores del Cielo since 1987, Harris would gather with other accomplished aviation and aerospace executives each September at the "A Bar A Ranch" in Encampment, Wyoming for recreational activities.