Air South?

Zidac

Zidac

Well-Known Member
Just wondering if anyone remembers Air South (1994-1997)? I was thinking about some of the airlines I have traveled on over the years and I remember flying their uhh... "vintage" 737-200s on a KJFK-KCHS round trip back in 1997. My family and I lucked out since the airline abruptly ceased operations about a week later, stranding a bunch of people at the airport.

Call Sign was "Khaki Blue"
Air_South_Boeing_737-200_Maiwald.jpg

Even for 1997, that livery was pretty dated.
 
I remember them. They had an...interesting buisness model. First they started a hub in Columbia, SC and tried to fly to the big airports on a route that the mainline carriers neglected. Since they only had a few planes, to start a bunch of cities they decided to add a bunch of tag-ons. You might be flying from Columbia to Jacksonville, and they would sell you a ticket that said it was nonstop, but the plane would make stops in 3 cities on the way down there. I'm sure people who saw how long the trip time was knew there would be stops, but 3 seems kinda of excessive. They also started routes in the Northeast with one airplane in a route network not even connected to their Columbia network. People in the Northeast couldn't even access most of Air South's cities as a result. When they weren't making money, they changed their buisness model and tried to serve smaller markets from big established hubs, usually in direct competition from legacy carriers. They also introduced a "Fly Three Fly Free!" frequent flyer program. They were bleeding money, and finally a 737-200 got stranded at an out station and needed a new engine, they had their final blow. They couldn't afford a new engine, so the plane sat there, and they canceled over 1/4 of their flights everyday for weeks creating a nightmare for their reservations. They shut down shortly afterwards.
 
Flew with a captain a few months back who worked for them and seemed to love it. He said he would've happily flown the 73' forever if they had stayed in business.
 
Too funny, I just flew with a guy who was in management there.

Poor guys didn't have a chance because their only business plan was to go into the east and southeast, attract Herb Kelleher's attention and sell the company.

But he didn't buy. Aaaaaaaaand then some engines needed to be replaced. $4 million here, $4 million there, that $19 million in startup capital got eaten up in short order.
 
ChasenSFO said:
I remember them. They had an...interesting buisness model. First they started a hub in Columbia, SC and tried to fly to the big airports on a route that the mainline carriers neglected. Since they only had a few planes, to start a bunch of cities they decided to add a bunch of tag-ons. You might be flying from Columbia to Jacksonville, and they would sell you a ticket that said it was nonstop, but the plane would make stops in 3 cities on the way down there. I'm sure people who saw how long the trip time was knew there would be stops, but 3 seems kinda of excessive. They also started routes in the Northeast with one airplane in a route network not even connected to their Columbia network. People in the Northeast couldn't even access most of Air South's cities as a result. When they weren't making money, they changed their buisness model and tried to serve smaller markets from big established hubs, usually in direct competition from legacy carriers. They also introduced a "Fly Three Fly Free!" frequent flyer program. They were bleeding money, and finally a 737-200 got stranded at an out station and needed a new engine, they had their final blow. They couldn't afford a new engine, so the plane sat there, and they canceled over 1/4 of their flights everyday for weeks creating a nightmare for their reservations. They shut down shortly afterwards.
Click to expand...

Now that you mention it, I remember that our flight had a quick stop in ORF on the way to CHS. The guy must have been in a rush because I remember us pulling some G's when pulling onto the runway for takeoff. :P

I don't remember seeing or hearing much about Air South until their last few months of existence. Out of nowhere, I started seeing their print and TV ads for ridiculously low fares. They must have seen the writing on the wall.
 
I remember them when I used to work passenger service at JFK for Carnival Airlines (another one that bit the dust) and Air Jamaica!
 
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