The MFA Story
2014 | New car smell
Mike Faust Airlines, fondly known as MFA, was founded by Mike Faust on October 31, 2014, in the parking lot of Parliament Hall at Florida Atlantic University, serving as an airline-themed lift for Mike’s friends to the Catholic Newman Club Halloween party.
Throughout Mike’s college year, the fake airline shuttled his friends across the FAU campus, to Mass at St. Joan of Arc, to midnight hangs on the beach, far and wide across our first town of operations, Boca Raton. As Mike started to make more money from his cruise blog's ad revenue, the airline introduced passenger amenities, including bottled water and bags of goldfish. MFA's road trip had begun.
2015 | Growing up
After giving it the ole college try, MFA closed its hub at FAU’s Parliament Hall (FAU) and established a new global gateway hub at Camden Boca Raton (CAM). From CAM, MFA offered continued offering regular service for Mike’s friends to and from the FAU campus to Mizner Park and St. Joan of Arc. 2015 also saw the introduction of branded pillows, bringing a professional and cozy touch to the fleet’s original Mazda 3 aircar, "Navigator of the Streets."
2016 | Flights of fancy…hotels
MFA began long haul operations with its inaugural trip to The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, with a scheduled stopover at Disney Springs and Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar. The first long haul also featured our first foray into indrive dining, offering our first long haul Business Class guest, Gina K., a full breakfast service, including a breakfast sandwich, yogurt & granola, and fresh fruit. Gina said it was “okay”.
2017 | Orlandhome Part 1
MFA shifted focus from serving South Florida to being closer to the Tower of Terror, closing its global gateway hub at CAM and moving operations to Baldwin Harbor Orlando (BWH). The relocation also debuted the airline’s new aircar, the 2017 Mazda3 “Mikeliner”. A new hub and aircar also brought about the most radical rebranding in the airline’s history, trading in the ocean blues of Boca for the distinguished purples and blacks that, for some reason, made Mike think of Orlando.
2018 | Reaching out
From Orlando, MFA expanded its route map to include new vacation spots on Florida’s western and northern coasts, introducing service to St. Augustine, Amelia Island, and Captiva.
2019 | Wanderin’
MFA’s indrive magazine Wander published its first edition in 2019, offering passengers MFA crew recommendations for their Orlando must-visits, as well as some song recs, cocktail recipes, and travel info.
2020 | Oh no!
Soon, the world came to a halt, and our aircar sat still on Jake Street, gathering dust, acorns, and pollen. The pandemic forced a rethinking of how to share the fun energy of MFA while in lockdown, becoming more of an insane fever dream video series featuring multiple Mikes running around an apartment, pretending to travel around the world, in cardboard airplanes, and even a cruise ship. But MFA still brought joy to Mike's friends and family, even from afar, and that’s what this fake car airline is all about!
2021 | We are so back!
After a year-long suspension of operations due to the Covid-19, MFA rolled up its sleeves, grabbed a double dose of Pfizer, and resumed operations down I-95 in our beloved South Florida, opening our new home hub at Las Olas (OLA). MFA re-debuted in SOFLO with a refreshed brand, new uniforms, and true pilot wings for the first time ever.
2022 | Navigating the new normal
Still driving out of the rough air of the pandemic, MFA kept its head low, cutting costs (food, services, customer service, etc.) and trying to avoid the need to furlough our one employee while he used up all his vacation time from 2020 and 2021 traveling the world.
2023 | Electric slidin'
MFA’s most "shocking" change came at the end of 2023, when we introduced MFA’s first battery-powered aircar, a Tesla 323, christened "Voltaic Lady". This electrifying change opened the most innovative chapter yet for our fake car airline, offering our guests the coolest, greenest, most spacious aircar we’ve driven to date, and more importantly for us, tax breaks and reduced operational costs. Oh, and we’re helping the environment too!
2024 | Autopilot
Freshly tattooed with our retro logo, our crew set MFA on autopilot and spent the year traveling around the world with MFA's generous vacation policy. Technically, we should have been celebrating 10 years this year, but we
sort of forgot.
2025 | Orlandhome Part 2 Baldwin Park Boogaloo
With the rising costs of operating a fake car airline, MFA's Board of Mikes decided to relocate our operations to a former hub neighborhood — Baldwin Park, Orlando. We said goodbye to our Las Olas hub and its expensive rent, charged up the aircar, and set course for the streets we used to roam to establish our new BPK hub. With our return to central Florida, MFA opened new routes to familiar favorite destinations, such as St. Augustine, Naples, Captiva, Lake Buena Vista, and Winter Park.
2026| Eyes on the horizon
Today, MFA employs a strong workforce of 1 and serves more than 25 destinations around the beautiful Sunshine State. We’re keeping our eyes on the horizon, continuing our work driving for greatness, making the MFA experience better than ever — opening new routes to the places you want to go, upgrading the indrive experience to make your ride even more comfy (yes, even in economy), and always going above and beyond for you — my family, friends, and colleagues — a special and fun way to pick you up from the airport, drop you at a cruise terminal, wherever. It’s my unique way of saying I love you and I'm glad you’re along for the ride, both this drive and life.
Thanks for being a part of our MFA story — we're excited to continue this journey with you.