History
Frank Hulse was fascinated by aviation from childhood, starting by literally sweeping floors and helping with chores at his local airport. Eventually he worked into management of his local Fixed Base Operator in Augusta, Georgia, in 1936, naming it Southern Airways. Additional locations were added across the South in the 1930s, and during World War II a flight training operation was started, eventually graduating 25,000 Pilots.
From managing these enterprises and driving the poor network of roadways in the region, Hulse had the idea to start a regionally-focused air carrier and filed paperwork with the government in 1944. While his application was pending, he acquired used military DC-3s and updated his FBO buildings to better accommodate passengers’ comfort. Approvals were granted in June 1949 and services began from its headquarters of Atlanta to connect smaller communities across the southern U.S. to larger carriers at Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans, and Memphis.
Local Service route extensions were frequently granted and the DC-3 fleet kept growing through the 1950s, but at key airports ramp and hangar space could not handle so many smaller aircraft – leading to the purchase of a fleet of larger and faster Martin 404s from Eastern beginning in the fall of 1961.
The pace of route and fleet growth did not mean all was well at Southern, however. Labor relations were a consistent issue, with a two-year long pilots’ strike taking place 1960-1962. Southern did hire nonunion replacements to maintain operations during that strike, but the union was successful in its demands. However, labor peace in the cockpit and with company management remained tenuous for the rest of the company’s existence. Southern’s flight attendants, while not conducting a strike, were also engaged in the industry-wide movement against discriminatory regulations through the 1960s and 1970s.
As the U.S. government eased geographic area restrictions on Local Service Airlines from the late 1960s, Southern Airways expanded cautiously to add new cities and routes, often choosing opportunities that side-stepped most direct competition with major airlines. At the same time, Southern added new-build DC-9 jets, supplementing them with used models as those became available in the early 1970s.
For instance, jet service to Washington DC and New York City was begun in 1968 not from Atlanta but rather out of the military base community of Columbus, GA, with flights originating from smaller Alabama towns and the Gulf Coast. Service to Miami and Orlando in 1970 likewise extended from those same small cities on the Gulf and Deep South rather than larger centers like Nashville or Charlotte. So while Orlando became a booming tourism market by the mid 1970s, Southern was largely unable to take advantage of the trend as its communities were too small to fill big jets, and were not in higher-income areas that could afford frequent vacations.
St. Louis, Chicago, the Cayman Islands, and Detroit were all added by the end of 1974. The first two markets featured nonstops to Memphis with continuing service into the Deep South, which connected diaspora communities as well as following the traditional flow of commerce up and down the Mississippi. Detroit service was nonstop to Nashville with onward flights to the industrial belt in Alabama, catering to the automotive trade as well as historic Black communities at both ends of the service. These three routes represented a shift in thinking – a focus on major city pairs with strong “origin & destination” demand, plus maximized connections within the Southern network to smaller communities. The Grand Cayman service, however, depended on connections over Miami to carriers like Eastern, Delta, and Northwest to fill seats.
Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Denver were added in 1978 to provide better north-south and east-west traffic flows through Memphis, using the lessons learned successfully in Chicago and St. Louis.
Despite these route additions, the airline still struggled to be profitable in a region dominated by the much larger Eastern Airlines and Delta Air Lines, both with significant connecting hubs at Atlanta. Nearly all of Southern’s feed into Atlanta interlined onto Delta or Eastern flights elsewhere, and those carriers increasingly sought to capture 100% of the flow in and out of ATL.
Memphis to a lesser extent also suffered from this traffic capture problem, as Delta was the dominant carrier from there to East Coast markets; United had control to the West Coast; and Braniff, American, and Texas International all fought for flow into Texas. In 1978-79, Southern did not have the fleet on hand to further expand to places like Los Angeles or San Francisco, nor the financing to build up such a substantial and long-range fleet to make Memphis its “fortress,” and could not conceive of reallocating its fleet away from local service routes into Atlanta in order to build up elsewhere. (Nor could it, in the pre-Deregulation era where the Civil Aeronautics Board dictated where each airline was permitted to fly.)
Southern’s fleet of 45 DC-9 twin jets, well-run maintenance facilities at Atlanta, a growing hub at Memphis, and established stations in sunbelt markets that could handle extra flights from the North were all attractive to North Central Airlines, both as a way to expand rapidly, and to balance North Central’s predominantly northern route system. Southern also brought 4,500 employees’ experience to the mix.
The two airlines were merged to create Republic Airlines on July 1, 1979, with headquarters at the former North Central building in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Hulse would act as Vice Chairman on the Republic board through 1984, and several other Southern leaders would continue in those roles at Republic as well.
Also see our biography page for Frank Hulse
Route Maps
Timetables
Aircraft
The carrier began with the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3 to establish its Local Service network through the 1950s, transitioning into the larger and faster Martin 404 as its mainstay in the 1960s. Douglas DC-9 jets were brought on in the late 1960s and this type powered its evolution into a significant regional carrier.
The 40-seat piston-engined Martins remained in service through the mid-1970s, well beyond any other major carrier’s retirement date, and were finally replaced with 19-seat Swearingen Metro turboprops, but these early versions were underpowered for their operating environment with frequent cancellations and substitutions. While Republic did take them into their fleet during the merger, they were almost immediately replaced with larger Convair 580s brought down from the northern system.
Southern did place an order for four McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 trunkliner jets that would have allowed for longer-range service; these were taken up by Republic and eventually made their way to Northwest.
Financial / Annual Reports
Employee Newsletters
We are seeking copies or digital files of the Southernaire staff newsletter as we have only a few examples – please contact us if you can assist!
Marketing Materials
- Inflight Magazines (also seeking more examples)
