Southern Airways

Southern Airways was a regional airline operating in the United States from its founding in the 1940s until the late 1970s when it was folded into Republic Airlines, which later became part of Northwest Airlines.

Southern Airways began its life operating propellor-driven equipment around its route system which covered the south central portion of the U.S. By 1968, Southern's route system extended from its most northerly stop at the Bristol-Kingsport-Johnson City (Tri-Cities) airport in Tennessee southward to its most southerly points at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida. The westward boundaries of Southern's route system were marked by Baton Rouge and Monroe, Louisiana. Routes extended eastward to the Atlantic Ocean at Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina.

Southern did not operate turboprop aircraft as a transition from propellor equipment to pure jets, as other airlines did. Southern was the only airline to transition from propellor-driven equipment to jet aircraft without utilizing the intermediate turboprops. By the beginning of the 1970s, Southern was flying 75 and 95 passenger DC-9 jets and 40-passenger