AIR T history

Clark gained control of Sunbird, MAC, and M.S. by the end of 1982, and the following year brought them together within a holding company, Hope Springs Aviation, Inc., that he ran as chief executive.

Later in 1983 Clark engineered a reverse merger with Atlanta Express Airline Corporation and took the company public.

The commuter airline business did not pan out for Clark, its failure leading to a loss of $1.3 million in fiscal 1984 for Air T. He gave up on the business and Sun-bird was divested.

The year 1989 also saw Air T begin a three-year effort to divest ownership of almost all of its aircraft.

To achieve some measure of diversity and hopefully begin to become less dependent on FedEx, Air T in October 1993 formed Mountain Aircraft Services (MAS) to provide commercial and military aircraft with parts and engine repair services in both North Carolina and Miami.

Shortly after the fiscal year came to a close at the end of March 1997, Clark engineered an acquisition that he hoped would greatly enhance the balance sheet.

The research and development expense, combined with a dip in deicer sales due to three consecutive warm winters, cut into profits in fiscal 1999.

The importance of Global continued to grow in fiscal 2001, when sales jumped to $31.4 million, a major reason why Air T experienced an increase in revenues to $70.2 million and a net profit of $1.3 million on the year.

In fiscal 2006, for example, CSA was named FedEx’s Feeder Aircraft Operator of the Year.

In December 2017, AIR T, INC. purchased the assets of Blue Clay Capital Management, an investment manager focused on unearthing fundamentally attractive small and mid-cap opportunities.