Ryan International Airlines, Inc. was an American FAR 121 airline with domestic, flag, and supplemental authority. Synopsis and history Based at Chicago Rockford International Airport in Rockford, Illinois, the US Postal Service was once the airline's main customer, utilizing Boeing 727 aircraft operated by Ryan International on scheduled mail delivery flights. Ryan also flew non-scheduled charter passenger services for excursion and tour packagers, along with the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of Justice, and others. In 1998, the airline began operating flights from California to Hawaii and Mexico, using a pair of McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft and several Airbus A320s on behalf of SunTrips, a vacation package operator in California. The aircraft were operated with Skyservice USA titles and wore the livery of Airtours International Airways, SunTrips' parent company. In 2000, the Skyservice USA titles were replaced with SunTrips titles on the aircraft. Later, Ryan would operate SunTrips flights using Boeing 757 aircraft in Ryan's own livery. The airline was wholly owned by Ronald Ryan until 2005, when it was purchased by commercial real-estate firm Rubloff Development Group. Ryan operated scheduled passenger flights with Airbus A320 jets for AirTran Airways between Atlanta and the US west coast in 2003 and 2004, after which AirTran began operating the flights themselves with newly delivered Boeing 737-700 aircraft. Since moving to Rubloff's headquarters in Rockford in 2006, Ryan held a notable number of contracts working mainly for the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Until summer 2008, it maintained large operations in Milwaukee St Louis and Boston for Funjet and Apple Vacations. These contracts were terminated following the failure of European carrier Futura International Airways, from which Ryan leased several aircraft to support this operation. In November 2011, Ryan took delivery their first Airbus A330-300, leased from Virgin Atlantic. In February 2012, Ryan furloughed pilots, flight attendants, and support staff. On March 6, 2012, Ryan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing "unexpected and dramatic reductions in military flying." On April 1, 2012, Ryan lost its bid to continue flying for the DHS. The loss of the DHS contract resulted in the immediate grounding of four McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft to cut costs. On August 1, 2012, Ryan returned its A330-300 to Virgin Atlantic, ending its lease and accepting an older model Airbus A330-200 formerly operated by Atlasjet. Six days later, Jeff