J. Frank Fine founded the predecessor of Fine Air in 1976 as a leasing company which owned two Boeing 707 aircraft. Fine owned farming operations in twelve countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and sought a reliable support system for third-party operators to ship his products to the United States. His company was certified as a Douglas DC-8 repair station in 1986 and received an air carrier operating certificate in November 1992; it began scheduled cargo service in 1994 as the largest international air cargo carrier at Miami International Airport (as measured by tons carried).