Puneet Varma (Editor)

Southern Airways Express

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
9X
  
FDY

Destinations
  
20

Fleet size
  
23

FDY
  
FRIENDLY

Founded
  
2013


Parent company
  
Southern Airways Corporation

Key people
  
Stan Little (Chairman and CEO)

Headquarters
  
Memphis, Tennessee, United States

Hubs
  
Pittsburgh International Airport

Southern airways express cessna 208 cockpit washington dulles to lancaster featuring antonov 124


Southern Airways Express is a commuter airline operating in the United States, headquartered in One Commerce Square in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. It acts as a local service airline for several cities in the Southern United States and provides scheduled passenger service in the Mid-Atlantic Region subsidized by the US federal government under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program.

Contents

In its Gulf Region, Southern operates from executive terminals at primary airports, meaning that passengers are not required to check-in at the main passenger terminals, nor are they required to pass through TSA security screening. In Southern's Mid-Atlantic footprint, which includes the Metropolitan Washington Airports, passengers embark and disembark through the primary terminals.

Southern airways express


History

Southern Airways Express was founded by Stan Little, an attorney based in Hernando, Mississippi. Little owned a Cessna 208 Caravan which he provided on loan before receiving US Department of Transportation air commuter authority and securing capital financing from unknown investors in order to start the airline. Southern Airways Express continues to operate Cessna Caravan aircraft and Little's personal pilot, Scott Honnoll, later became the airline's assistant chief pilot.

The airline started operations in June 2013, with its first flight from Olive Branch Airport near Memphis, Tennessee to Destin Executive Airport. Early destinations included University-Oxford Airport, Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport, New Orleans Lakefront Airport, and Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. Due to the nature of the flights being public charters, the airline did not originally use TSA terminals. During the first year, the airline was run experimentally, operating different routes to test demand.

Southern Airways Express started flights to DeKalb–Peachtree Airport in September 2013, but the routes were then suspended. Service to DeKalb-Peachtree resumed on 30 May 2014. On 1 October 2014, Southern Airways Express relocated its Memphis hub from Olive Branch Airport to the Private Signature Terminal at Memphis International Airport, which is closer to the Memphis city center.

Southern Airways began operating flights in behalf of Seaport Airlines in the Fall of 2015 but discontinued that service when Seaport filed for bankruptcy in January 2015.

Southern Airways Express announced on March 7, 2016 that it had purchased Fort Lauderdale-based Sun Air Express. The combined airline has since retired Sun Air Express's Piper aircraft in favor of the Cessna Caravan and has retired the Sun Air Express name in all cities that it serves.

With the addition of Nashville (BNA) and Jackson, Mississippi (JAN) in the Gulf footprint, Southern continues its expansion near its hometown.

Fleet

As of August 2016, the Southern Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft:

References

Southern Airways Express Wikipedia