Expanding on the article “Convairs to the Rescue” in the June 2019 REFLECTIONS, I used timetables from our online archive to reconstruct the scheduled routings for Southern Metroliners before the merger and Republic Convair 580s for two periods after.
Southern intended to work the Metros hard, with high-frequency / fast-turnaround service from smaller markets into Atlanta and Memphis. SO based most of the fleet in ATL, so the first flights of the day were early outbound runs likely nearly empty.
The 580s needed more time for turnarounds and their higher capacity meant high-frequency service was impractical. Gradually the Convairs replaced a few DC-9 services as well.
The linked Excel spreadsheet has three tabs, with each tab listing the itineraries of ATL/MEM prop operations, sorts them into the order each aircraft worked the schedule with a color-coding key, and displays their arrivals and departures at both Atlanta and Memphis using that color-coding, to help you trace each aircraft’s movement.
