Southern Air Transport

Southern Air Transport

Southern Air Transport Boeing 747-200
IATA ICAO Callsign SJ[1] SJM[1] –
Founded	31 October 1949 incorporated in Florida
Commenced operations	February 1947
Ceased operations	1998
Operating bases	Columbus, Ohio Miami, Florida Yokota, Japan Tainan, Taiwan
Fleet size	See Fleet below
Parent company	Pacific Corporation (1960–1973)
Headquarters	Columbus, Ohio Miami, Florida United States
Key people	Stanley G. Williams James H. Bastian George A. Doole Jr.
Founder	F. C. "Doc" Moor

Southern Air Transport (SAT), based in Miami, Florida, was, in its final incarnation, a cargo airline. However, it started life as an irregular air carrier (later known as a supplemental air carrier), a type of carrier defined and tightly controlled until 1978 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a now defunct Federal agency that, at the time, closely regulated almost all US commercial air transportation. From 1965 onward, such airlines were charter carriers. Up until 1965, they were charter/scheduled hybrids. For much of that time the carrier was owned by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (1960–1973).

The carrier was also known for its role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s, during which SAT transported arms to Iran and to the US-backed mercenary army in Central America known as the Contras, which were fighting the revolutionary Sandinista government in Nicaragua.