mid-sea express (mse) takes its name from the middle of south east asia, the region in which it operates and founded by capt. ronan d. villanueva. mse began operating as island helicopter services, which was established in 2008. in 2011, after seeing the need to service the neighboring islands around cebu, mid-sea express began operating unscheduled air transportation, and acquired an aircraft with a short take-off and landing capability, an 8-seater bn-2a islander. starting a daily flight schedule from cebu to tagbilaran city, bohol. a month later, cebu–bantayan island was also opened. then, it was successively followed by flights to camiguin and siquijor islands utilizing a 21-seater british aerospace jetstream 32ep aircraft. mse also opened routes from cebu to tandag, bislig, guiuan, and vice versa, to serve foreign and local travelers, focusing solely on routes which were previously not serviced via air travel.