New airline flying thousands of Central American children around U.S.

From Wayne Madsen Report:

July 8-9, 2014 -- New airline flying thousands of Central American children around U.S.

Emerging almost out of no where, a new charter airline, Orange Air LLC, has become one of the most active airlines in the American southwest. Orange Air's plane, exactly one, with its stylized letter "O" is now almost as familiar a sight at San Antonio International Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport as the more numerous Southwest Airlines aircraft.

Orange Air, with almost no corporate history, has received a contract from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch to ferry around the southwest thousands of illegal immigrant children largely from Honduras, Guatemala, and to a lesser extent, El Salvador, who have streamed across the U.S.-Mexican border based on a U.S. law that states they may remain in the U.S. as long as they hail from a non-contiguous country.

To read Orange Air's website, one could be a bit confused about the sudden appearance of the firm's single charter plane at airports throughout the southwest. Its website claims that the company, based at Sanford International Airport in Florida, has "supplied diverse aviation services and aircraft to various US government agencies, the United Nations, foreign governments, Fortune 100 companies, U.S. government officials, foreign dignitaries, royal families, prominent sports figures, and notable entertainers." And now, if one were to believe the firm's website, Orange's planes, which have flown around kings and princesses and diplomats and wealthy CEOs is now transporting the most poorest of the poor young refugees from Central America. WMR has learned that Orange largely existed only on paper before it received the lucrative DHS/ICE contract. It was so under-capitalized, it initially expected its pilots to work for "IOUs" before its federal government cash flow spigot was turned on.


Relative newcomer Orange Air is rumored by aviation industry insiders as having CIA connections. The firm's executives have remained tight-lipped with the media about its operations.

One has to wonder how many princes and star quarterbacks Orange has flown since the firm's website states the airline's first "revenue flight" was on June 10, 2014. Orange received its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification on June 3, 2014. It was during June that children from Central America first began crossing into the United States in massive numbers.

Orange's website, although it claims to have flown celebrities and royalty, has a strange way of attracting customers. Orange's website stresses: "We are a low cost airline offering flights of fancy and cruises through previously uncharted airwaves. We are not looking toward making it comfortable for you as your flight is your own, but we will provide you with everything that you may need for a complete journey. You are not expected to want to return, consequently we do not offer 2-way tickets nor do we ever fly to the same destination twice."

Orange fleet of one airplane consists of a 32-year old MD-82 aircraft (N918AV). Although the airline is based at Sanford airport, its general counsel is located in Bethesda, Maryland. The firm was incorporated in Delaware. Some of Orange's principals previously worked for Falcon Air Express, a Miami-based charter company with a secondary hub in Mesa, Arizona that offers service to Curacao under the name Dutch Antilles Express, and which is contracted to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Refugee children who disembark from the Orange aircraft at San Antonio are transported in prison buses to the San Antonio-Lackland Joint Base. Orange Air's plane has been known to make as many as six trips in a single day. The aircraft's stops have included McAllen, El Paso, Brownsville, and Houston [George Bush International], Texas; Lawton-Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Alexandria-Fort Polk, Louisiana; San Diego, California; and Tucson, Phoenix, and Mesa, Arizona.