One of the key people was George Mavrantonakis, co-founder of Sky Express, former Chief Operating Officer and Accountable Manager of Olympic Airlines and former Advisor to the President of the same airline.

The company was granted an air operator's certificate on 30 December 2011[2] and its first base was Heraklion International Airport.

In June 2012 Minoan Air based an airliner in Spain (in either Burgos Airport or León Airport) to operate charter flights for Spanish tour operator Good Fly.

[9] Minoan flew from London Oxford to Dublin and Edinburgh until 4 August 2013, while flights to Rome-Fiumicino and Vienna have been operated from Lugano.

In November 2015, Minoan Air suspended all operations until further notice due to the impact of the Greek financial crisis.