The carrier, based in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, was conceived by two Scottish brothers, John and Hugh Boyle, to fill an opportunity in the Canadian leisure travel market.

Their next venture, Direct Holidays, was started in 1991 and gained strength and market share in Scotland, becoming a household name and the largest 'direct sell' travel company in the UK.

In taking this business model one step further, Boyle launched Zoom Airlines, removing the remaining third parties from the booking process.

In January 2008, Zoom Airlines Inc received approval from the Canadian Minister of Transport, Lawrence Cannon, to operate flights between Canada and Italy.

On the same day shortly after C-GZNA had departed London Gatwick for Bermuda/Fort Lauderdale under the command of Captain Tony Hampson and Senior First Officer Howard Barnard the company's sister airline filed for bankruptcy under the British legal system in August 2008.

The executives at Globe Span had planned to use the Zoom Airlines brand name, but chose to change to the name XPO, meaning Cross Pacific Ocean.

[12] In February 2018, XPO Airlines was in advanced stages of talks with investors, hoping to raise a total of about $18,000,000 CAD by the end of the fiscal year of 2018.