SOUTHEAST (PTY.), LTD.: South Africa (1992-1994). Southeast is established at Bisho, the capital of the homeland of Ciskei, in April 1992. Employing a leased Convair CV-580, scheduled roundtrip services are inaugurated in July between the company base and Johannesburg.
Flights continue until April 1994 when Ciskei is integrated into the new Eastern Cape Province and the carrier is shut down.
SOUTHEAST AIR (1): United States (1979). Southeast-1 is established at New Bedford, Massachusetts, in early 1979 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and New York (LGA). Although daily Piper PA-23 Aztec roundtrips are duly begun, they last only until the fall.
SOUTHEAST AIR (2): P. O. Box 1358, Manteo, North Carolina 27954, United States; Phone (919) 473-3222; Fax (919) 473-1349; Http://www. southeastair. com; Year Founded 1992. North Carolina-based Southeast Air begins intrastate services in summer 1992, flying a total of 702 revenue passengers. Emphasis is placed upon services to the Outer Banks. The workforce is increased by 33.3% in 1993 to eight and the fleet includes two Cessna 172s, a Cessna 206, and one Piper PA-31310 Navajo.
Customer bookings accelerate 47.9% to 1,038 and cargo rises 63% to 12,000 FTKs. Revenues jump 68.9% to $351,061.
Flights continue apace in 1994-1998. During these years, President Betty Shotton Brindley, a longtime Outer Banks tourism executive, and Operations Director David Lehr oversee the flights of four pilots.
Regularly scheduled shuttle flights are introduced during the spring of 1999 between Manteo and Norfolk, Virginia.
SOUTHEAST AIRLINES (1): United States (1956-1960). E. Ward King, owner of Kingsport-based Mason & Dixon Truck Lines, establishes Southeast Airlines at Tri-Cities Regional Airport, Blountville, Tennessee, in 1956. The intrastate start-up is a subsidiary of the airport’s FBO, Southeast Aviation. The state Bureau of Aeronautics, in hearings conducted late in the year, approves intrastate operations. King, having obtained a required $250,000 in capitalization, hires a workforce and purchases 5 Douglas DC-3s.
Intrastate flights commence in February 1957. Initial destinations served include Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Nashville. In the spring, Southeast approaches the U. S. CAB for local service routes outside Tennessee. When five potential competitors object, the government regulators consolidate Southeast’s request into its Southeast Area Local Service route case, then pending.
Destinations now served include, from east to west: Tri Cities, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Shelbyville/Tullahoma, Nashville, Clarksville, Jackson, Union City, Dyersburg, and Memphis.
A DC-3 with three crew and seven passengers crashes into Tennessee’s Mount Holston on January 8, 1958; there are no survivors.
As Crown Coach service continues back and forth across Tennessee, King, having received approval from Delta Air Lines and Eastern Air Lines, approaches the CAB for permission to issue interline tickets and to receive subsidy payments. The government denies both requests. A state subsidy award is received for use in opening additional frequencies from Tri-Cities to Nashville via Knoxville.
The fleet is increased in 1959 by the addition of two Convair CV-240s purchased from American Airlines. During the year, one Douglas transport is written off following an accident. Service to Dyersburg, Union City, and Clarksville is suspended as finances crumble. Unable to maintain viability or obtain a last-ditch fiscal bailout from the Tennessee state government, Southeast Airlines (1) closes its doors on August 1, 1960. DC-3 charters are flown for a few additional months as the company undergoes liquidation.
Plans to restart services in 1961 are crushed when the CAB awards its routes to Atlanta-based Southern Airways.
SOUTHEAST AIRLINES (2): United States (1962-1976). Irving Jones and Donald Sittman establish the second Southeast Airlines at Miami during the late summer of 1962 to take over the route from Miami to Key West via Marathon abandoned by National Airlines (1). Employing 1 each Beech 18 and Douglas DC-3, daily roundtrip revenue frequencies commence on September 25.
Service over the route is maintained for the next 15 years. During this period, the fleet is expanded by the addition of a Martin 2-0-2A and a Fokker F.27 and the route network grows to include a route from Miami to Freeport in the Bahamas, operated by a Grumman Goose.
Perhaps the most harrowing event in the airline’s history is a 1968 hijacking, one of many U. S. to Cuba incidents of the 1960s and early 1970s.
En route from Key West to Miami on June 29, Flight 101, the DC-3 with 17 passengers aboard, is diverted to Havana by a passenger. The aircraft and most of its occupants are allowed to return, but two passengers are retained by the Cubans. One, of course, is the hijacker. The other is Capt. George Prellezo, who had commandeered a Cubana airliner to Florida eight years earlier. Prellezo will be tried and sentenced to eight years in prison; however, he will be returned to the U. S. after just three weeks in jail.
SOUTHEAST AIRLINES (3): United States (1974-1984). Formed at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in association with Trans East International Airlines in 1974, this third-level carrier undertakes scheduled passenger services to the Florida communities of West Palm Beach and Naples, as well as the Bahamian destinations of Marsh Harbour, Governor’s Harbour, North Eleuthera, Treasure Cay, and Rock Sound. The flight equipment employed consists primarily of Cessna 402s and Cessna 404 Titans.
Enplanements in the inaugural year total 60,024.
Airline employment in 1975 stands at 75. Passenger boardings drop 27.9% to 46,894. Freight is also down by 27.3%, to 11,000 FTKs.
Operations continue apace in 1976-1979, with declining enplanements. The fleet is upgraded to include 1 Boeing 707-320B, 1 B-720B, and 1 Fokker F.27. In 1977, a Lockheed L-188C is leased for a year from Eastern Air Lines.
These planes combine to carry a total of just 27,000 passengers in the latter year.
Higher fuel costs, inflation, and recession combine during 1980-1982 to force the carrier out of the scheduled airline business and into charter work. The larger aircraft are all withdrawn in favor of 1 Embraer EMB-110 Ban-deirante, 10 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beavers, and 2 Cessna 185s.
In 1983, the company enters into an association with cross-town charter competitor State Airlines, officials of which desire to offer scheduled flights. Under terms of the agreement, Southeast’s frequencies are offered under the marketing name State Southeast. The association is, however, short-lived as, on the heels of the bankruptcy of Trans East International Airlines in November, Southeast itself ceases operations.
Enplanements for the 11 months operated during the year total only 3,122.
The airline files for Chapter XI protection in February 1984. It does not resume flights, being purchased by and merged into Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA).
SOUTHEAST AIRLINES (4): United States (1978-1979). This Southeast Airlines is set up at Jackson, Tennessee, in 1978 to offer daily roundtrip shuttle services to Memphis and to Corinth, Mississippi. Although de Havilland DH 104 Dove frequencies are duly inaugurated, they cannot be maintained.
SOUTHEAST AIRLINES (5): United States (1979-1981). The last Southeast Airlines is the reformed scheduled air taxi operator Cat Cay Airlines, first established at Miami in 1959. Taken over by MCA Leasing in early 1979, the renamed company acquires one each former United Airlines Boeing B-720-022 and Pan American World Airways (1) B-707-321C. These are employed on May 8 to launch scheduled roundtrips to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Government inspectors find the company wanting and it loses its certificate in October. Although scheduled flights cease, charters are maintained on a sporadic basis. By 1981, the two original aircraft are replaced by a leased B-727F, which operates all-cargo charters to Colombia for several months before finally shutting down for good.
SOUTHEAST AIRLINES (6): 12552 Belcher Road, Largo, Florida 33773, United States; Phone 800-222-1201; Http://www. jetsouth-east. com; Code JX; Year Founded 1999. On June 18, 1997, the
Largo-based discount air carrier Sun Jet International Airlines grounds its planes, lays off most of its 145 employees, and prepares to file for Chapter 11 protection the following Monday. Passengers are switched to flights by Detroit-based Spirit Airlines. That company operates Sun Jet’s flights to Orlando, St. Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale, and Newark.
The carrier keeps its operating certificate active with the government and seeks a rescue package that will allow it to resume operations. Aviation Industries Corporation, led by former owner Thomas Kolfenbach, steps before the U. S. Bankruptcy Court on February 12, 1998 and wins permission to provide debtor-in-possession financing. Although Sun Jet Chairman John Mansouc and his management team are left in place, AIC retains AIBC Investment Services Corporation to advise it as it prepares to recall workers, expedite revalidation of the carrier’s fitness certificate with the DOT, and resume passenger charters.
A reorganization plan is filed with the court by March 20. When it becomes a reality, the airline will fly under a new brand name. During the remainder of the year, Chairman Mansouc and President Brooke Mayger concentrate on emerging from bankruptcy, winning back DOT operating approval, and beginning new charter flights.
The DOT finds Sun Jet fit to resume service during the first quarter of 1999. Flights resume from a base at St. Petersburg with a single Douglas DC-9-32 and under the name Southeast Airlines (6). A second DC-9-32 is acquired later in the year. Both conduct deep-discount public charters as well as contract flights from Atlanta to Biloxi, Mississippi, on behalf of various casinos.
Enplanements total 114,000.
Arrangements are completed for the acquisition of two more DC-9s during the spring of 2000. In August, Southeast takes delivery of the two DC-9-31s previously operated by and purchased from USAirways. They arrive in colorful liveries that feature the old “Sun King” logo of National Airlines (1).
Daily scheduled roundtrip service is inaugurated on October 12 from Atlanta to Sarasota and St. Petersburg, Florida. This is followed on October 26 by the start of daily return flights from Atlanta to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. Low advance bookings cause the company to indefinitely suspend the new route after its inaugural flight.
With its own North Carolina scheduled service out of the picture, the company accepts a scheduled service contract from flightserve. com, an Internet travel concern that is a subsidiary of the eResource Capital Group. On behalf of its new partner, Southeastern launches daily Skysaver Jet Shuttle roundtrips on November 17 from Norfolk, Virgina, to Orlando and New York (LGA). Additional Florida services will be started on January 6.
As the result of a spring law allowing an increase in traffic, New York (LGA) has, by early December, added more than 200 new daily flights and requests have been made that will increase the daily total by almost 600. In an effort to handle an increase certain to exacerbate existing delays and congestion, the FAA and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey begin coordinated planning while imposing a September moratorium on new La Guardia flights. On December 4, the FAA holds an action to distribute the available takeoff and landing slots. Each carrier serving the airport draws a certain number, with each then choosing lots for first choice of times for those slots. Southeast receives four of the new positions.
In late December, the company initiates six weekly return charter flights year round from Charlotte to Cancun, Mexico, on behalf of flightserve. com subsidiary Internet Aviation Services. Seasonal flights are also offered to Cancun from both Atlanta and New Orleans.
Passenger boardings during these 12 months surge 32.8% to 162,000.
World History
