Southern Airways
In the mid-1940s, the state of Mississippi found itself as one of the few areas of the United States where air transportation had not been fully developed. Cities such as Natchez, Vicksburg, and Greenville had long been major destinations for Old South travelers on riverboats, on narrow-gauge railroads, and on the meandering Natchez Trace, which ran 444 miles from Natchez to Nashville, and for almost two centuries these communities had taken immense pride in offering the most modern means of transportation to the traveling public. The modern air transportation system, however, had neglected these progressive cities because they were too small for the larger trunk airlines. When Southern Airways filed for routes across the state, only four Mississippi airports (Jackson, Greenwood, Meridian, and Gulfport-Biloxi) had scheduled airline service.
The state’s smaller communities had modest grass-field airports, while the midsized cities had paved runways constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, but by the 1940s these larger airports needed major refurbishing for scheduled airline service. Once Southern Airways received authority in 1947 to serve the state as a local service airline, these airports went through extensive modifications, and by late 1950 they were ready for airline service.
The airline planned extensive routes across Mississippi in its route application to the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) in 1944, which amounted to years of preparation and planning by local Mississippi communities, the State of Mississippi, and Southern Airways. Representatives from the respective parties had attended the CAB hearings in Greensboro, North Carolina, and in Washington, DC, hopeful Southern would bring extensive airline service to their state. Southern’s founder and president, Frank W. Hulse, was delighted when the company overcame the last hurdle for Mississippi service in the summer of 1950. He immediately purchased four DC-3s and had them customized into comfortable airliners at Southern’s Atlanta Maintenance Base.
Southern had three inaugural routes: Memphis to Jackson, Columbus to Mobile, and Jackson to New Orleans. It took Southern three months after the awarding of the Mississippi Valley routes to begin regular scheduled service between Memphis and Jackson. The airline announced that air service would begin on the northern segment on 25 October 1950. This air route connected Memphis with Clarksdale, Greenville, Vicksburg, and Jackson. The people in the Delta communities became ecstatic over the new service. Now they had direct service between both the business and industrial centers of Memphis and their state capital in Jackson.
On 9 December 1950, the airline made its inaugural route from Columbus, and city delegates joined the flight to Jackson, Laurel, Hattiesburg, and Mobile. The CAB had placed restrictions on the Columbus-Jackson-Laurel-Hattiesburg-Mobile route, stating that at least five passengers must board Southern flights in both Laurel and Hattiesburg each day to keep their air service. Laurel had a difficult time meeting its quota. At the end of each month the chambers of commerce would meet the quota by sending the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts on field trips to Jackson.
Monday, 15 January 1951, began with the Southern Airways ramp crew busy preparing the airline’s newest DC-3 for its inaugural service from Jackson to New Orleans, with stops in Natchez and Baton Rouge. Cashing in on its southern roots by marketing the airline’s distinctive southern origins, this inaugural flight would prove to be one the most Old South–themed inaugurals in the airline’s history, complete with Daughters of the Confederacy in attendance, unfurled Confederate flags, and local high school bands playing “As the Saints Go Marching In” as the plane approached the terminals. Previously, in Greenville, flight attendants from the connecting airlines had received cotton boll corsages by local beauty queens as the high school band played “Dixie.” One of the highlights of the Vicksburg inauguration became the presence of the entire student body of the segregated school, despite the fact that during this era of Jim Crow segregation, these Black school children would have little use for airline service. Nevertheless, by the mid-1960s Southern began hiring minority employees to become part of the airline’s administrative, flight, and ground crews. Most airlines in the United States did not take this action until forced by the federal government under the equal and minority hiring laws passed during the presidential administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
Southern had been flying over Tupelo since June 1949, waiting for a suitable airport. The city had been on the original route from Atlanta to Memphis, but Southern had to wait for the construction of a new airport to commence service. In 1936 the WPA was extremely active in Mississippi, and a team of WPA engineers had come up from Jackson to select the site for the Tupelo airfield. The government performed all the surveying, grading, paving, and fence building at the airport, but the dark days of World War II found the airfield neglected since no Army Air Corps training installations were located at Tupelo. During this time, Tupelo had to fight to keep its airfield open.
Tupelo selected 11 July 1951 as the official day for the new airport’s dedication. In its morning edition, the Daily Journal gave a rundown of the day’s planned events. The program would begin with a luncheon honoring special guest Frank Hulse and Mississippi governor Fielding Wright, followed by an early-afternoon air show, featuring forty local aviators. More than a thousand people attended the festivities, and Southern completed the day with sightseeing flights over Tupelo.
On 13 February 1952 the CAB granted Southern Airways service to Gulfport-Biloxi. This became the last major Mississippi city to receive scheduled Southern service during its formative years. This new service proved important as the airline looked for new ways to attract customers through tourism. This new market gave the company a destination that would attract travel agents to entice passengers who were looking for new vacation destinations. Southern scheduled its inaugural service into Gulfport’s airport on Thursday, 20 March 1952.
By the early 1960s Southern’s Mississippi service had expanded, with flights into Corinth, Greenwood, Meridian, Pascagoula, and University-Oxford. By 1968 the faithful DC-3s became replaced by Martin 404s and DC-9 Fanjets, but in 1979 Southern merged with Minnesota-based North Central Airlines to form Republic Airlines. By 1984 Southern’s Mississippi cites began losing their air service for more profitable nationwide routes, and Southern Airways’ short-lived journey had come to an end.
