Sunshine Skies Historic Commuter Airlines of Florida and Georgia, written by David P. Henderson

SOUTHEASTERN COMMUTER AIRLINES

Southeastern was originally known as Coastal Air and began service in 1975 with flights between Atlanta and Auburn, AL. The airline became Southeastern Commuter in 1976 and, over the course of the next few years, expanded into small niche markets from Atlanta including flights to Tuskegee, AL and LaGrange, Callaway Gardens and Rome,GA. Southeastern grew to become the 2nd largest commuter airline at Atlanta in the early 1980s and, after accumulating sizable debt following rapid expansion, merged with Atlantic Southeast (ASA) on April 1, 1983.

Southeastern Commuter operated de Havilland DH-104 Doves, most of which were converted to turboprop power. Known as the "Riley conversion", these aircraft also had redesigned streamlined tails and squared wingtips.

Southeastern Commuter Airlines DH-104 Dove

By 1982, Southeastern Commuter was known simply as Southeastern and had undertaken a massive expansion including the addition of Embraer Bandeirantes. "Bandit" N900FB is seen at Atlanta in 1982.

Southeastern Airlines Embraer Bandeirante

Southeastern Airlines Embraer Bandeirante

Southeastern was one of few U.S. airlines to fly the 16-passenger Australian-built GAF Nomad. N4816C is pictured at Atlanta in November 1982.

Southeastern Airlines GAF Nomad

This timetable from February 15, 1983 shows the dozen destinations served by Southeastern shortly before it was absorbed by Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Nearly all of these routes were formerly flown by Southern Airways (with the notable exception of Auburn) and had been abandoned after Southern became Republic Airlines.

Southeastern Airlines timetable from February 1983

Southeastern Airlines timetable from February 1983

In May 2010, I received this great story from Jim Locke of Montgomery, AL:

"As students at Auburn in the 70's, a good friend and I formed a small (tiny) ad agency and Southeastern was one of our clients. You wouldn't believe the ads they had running in the newspaper--they were hilarious. We tried to "upgrade" them a bit and added a series of radio spots complete with girls from the Auburn Chorale singing, "Fly Southeasternnnnnnnn," at the close of each spot.

We dealt with a husband and wife team whose names were--no kidding--Roy and Dale (Hagerty). Very nice folks. And yes, they had nicknamed their planes Trigger and Bullet. In addition to paying us for our work we were allowed to fly anywhere on the planes, space-available. That made for some really impressed dates."

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For additional timetable images and information, visit the Southeastern pages at Air Times and Timetable Images.

Sunshine Skies Historic Commuter Airlines of Florida and Georgia by David P. Henderson
Zeus Henderson Zeus Press