The airline began as a commuter and charter air carrier in the western United States flying turboprop and prop aircraft.

The airline initially served eleven destinations in Idaho as well as Spokane, Washington with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprop short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft.

Included was the company president, Rolland Smith, who was filling in as pilot of the mid-morning flight of the Beechcraft 65-B 80 Queen Air from Hailey to Boise.

[10] These flights primarily served smaller communities in the region; however, service was also flown into larger cities such as Boise, ID (BOI), Grand Junction, CO (GJT), Oakland, CA (OAK) and Reno, NV (RNO).

Key Airlines made headlines on the sports pages in November 1978, when it was part of a forfeited college football game.

To forego lodging, ISU chose to fly on game day, but the plane carrying the Bengals' defense developed carburetor problems shortly after take-off and turned back.

[11] Both teams were having poor seasons in the Big Sky Conference and opted not to reschedule, as both schools' indoor stadiums were soon changing over to basketball configurations.

By then, Key Air was operating scheduled passenger flights with Boeing 727s and its financial situation had become challenging with the result that service had to be cut back and aircraft disposed of.