Prime Airlines was formed by HeavyLift Cargo Airlines ( HC Airlines ) as a passenger charter carrier . Initially offering its sole aircraft on an ad hoc basis from its base at East Midlands Airport ( EMA ) near Nottingham . Originally the airline was to be called Breeze but the company had difficulties in securing the name for operation . Finally the name Prime Airlines was chosen . With the assistance of former Transaer managers HC Airlines leased its sole aircraft an A300B4-203 and recruitment began for cabin crew . As the airline only had one aircraft a total of 27 cabin crew were hired for the start of operations in mid-2001 . The company had no need to recruit flight crew as HC Airlines operated the Airbus A300B4 in cargo configuration and simply cross utilized the crew . Once the airline obtained its AOC it began operations for a number of British inclusive tour operators and the military flying to destinations around Europe and the Middle East . After 9/11 the company suffered with lack of contracts and a second blow came when an American Airlines Airbus A300 ( Flight 587 ) crashed in New York City . Like most airlines at this time Prime had to make redundancies and cut its cabin crew numbers in half . The start of 2002 looked better for Prime Airlines as once again ad hoc charter contacts came in . The company started to plan for a brighter future and looked at adding extra aircraft to its fleet
Flight 587
American Airlines Flight 587
Prime Airlines