Southern Airways, operator of 600 weekly flights across 20\ncities, has acquired Hawaiian-based Mokulele Airlines. The deal is Southern\u2019s\nthird in the last four years, firmly cementing itself as America\u2019s fastest\ngrowing airline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With established footprints in the Gulf South, the\nmid-Atlantic, and South Florida, Southern now adds Hawaii and California to its\nportfolio. Following the integration of the two airlines, the combined entity\nwill operate 1,380 weekly flights, more than any other commuter airline in the\n50 states. Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Southern began in 2013 by offering flights from Memphis,\nTenn. to Destin, Fla. using a total of four pilots and three aircraft. In 2015,\nSouthern acquired Executive Express Aviation, the Illinois-based charter\ncompany that was previously contracted to operate Southern\u2019s flight schedule.\nIn February 2016, Southern acquired Sun Air Express, a commuter airline\noperating Essential Air Service (EAS) contracts in the mid-Atlantic. Today,\nSouthern still operates routes in those original Sun Air-served Pennsylvania\nand Maryland communities, plus three additional cities in the mid-Atlantic,\nalong with three EAS cities in Arkansas. In November 2018, Southern launched\nservice between Palm Beach, Tampa, and Key West, replacing routes abandoned by\nSilver Airways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mokulele Airlines, founded in 1994 by Rebecca \u201cKawehi\u201dInaba,\nwas the first airline started by a native Hawaiian woman. The airline was sold\nin 2005 and had multiple ownership changes, until it found stability with its\nlatest ownership group, Transpac Aviation, Inc. Since 2011, Mokulele has grown\nto 15 aircraft serving 11 cities, including four EAS communities. Mokulele\ncurrently operates 787 weekly departures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We\u2019ve looked at several potential acquisitions over\nthe last couple of years,\u201d said Stan Little, chairman and CEO of Southern.\n\u201cThis was the first opportunity that I believed to be the perfect complement to\noperation. We fly the same aircraft type, we have similar operational\nstructures and their assets and revenue streams help diversify our balance\nsheet. This acquisition will give the newly-combined company stability in an\notherwise volatile marketplace, while making Southern Airways a\nnationally-recognized brand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Southern\u2019s goals for the expanded company will be to\nobtain additional interline ticket and baggage agreements with major carriers.\nSouthern has interline agreements with American Airlines and Condor Airlines,\nwhile Mokulele has agreements with Alaska Airlines and Air New Zealand.\nExpanding those partnerships to include multiple national and global carriers\nwill be the focus post-integration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike Southern\u2019s previous two acquisitions, which included\nname changes and rebranding, Southern intends to keep the Mokulele brand alive\nand well in the Hawaiian Islands, while eventually operating all flights on the\nSouthern Airways FAA operating certificate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mokulele brand is beloved in the Hawaiian\nIslands,\u201dexplained Little. \u201cI\u2019ve found their aloha spirit to be very similar to\nour company\u2019s core values, so we are truly excited about adding the Mokulele\nname to the Southern family of companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Southern is coming off a record-setting year for passenger\ngrowth in its Essential Air Service cities with some communities seeing 40\npercent increases in traffic over the previous year, and many airports having\nhad their best year for enplanements in more than a decade. Southern has also\nposted some of the best performance statistics in the industry, completing over\n99 percent of its scheduled EAS flights in the last six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Passengers seeking more information about Southern Airways\nmay call the customer service center at 1-800-329-0485 or visit Southern\u2019s\nwebsite at, www.iFlySouthern.com. Mokulele\u2019s website is\nwww.MokuleleAirlines.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Southern Airways, operator of 600 weekly flights across 20 cities, has acquired Hawaiian-based Mokulele Airlines. The deal is Southern\u2019s third in the last four years, firmly cementing itself as America\u2019s fastest growing airline. With established footprints in the Gulf South, the mid-Atlantic, and South Florida, Southern now adds Hawaii and California to its portfolio. Following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mokulele-Airlines.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12009,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007\/revisions\/12009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}