Pete Johnson and Mark Murdock found the charter carrier Tamgass Aviation on Annette Island in 1960 to provide flights to such local destinations as Ketchikan and Metlakatta, plus bush locations. Scheduled services are introduced on March 10, 1964.
Operations continue throughout the decade with 1 each de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver and Cessna 185, both float-equipped. The company name is changed to Southcoast Airways in 1969 and to Alaska Southcoast Airways a year later.
Unable to maintain economic viability in the face of recession and increased oil prices, the company closes its doors in 1974.
ALASKA SOUTHERN AIRWAYS: United States (1933-1934). Established at Juneau as an FBO by Nick Bez, a canning industry official, Alaska Southern Airways becomes a charter airline operation in March 1932 when Bez purchases the remaining assets of Alaska-Washington Airways at a receiver’s sale. The major components acquired are the float-equipped Lockheed Model 5 Vegas Petersburg and Sitka, which are renamed Chichagof and Baranof, respectively. Alaska-Washington pilots Robert “Bob” Ellis, Gene Meyring, and A. B. “Cot” Hayes are retained, the latter as manager. Later in the year, a Fairchild 71, christened Pribilof, and a Keystone-Loening K-84 Commuter, the Kruzof, are also acquired.
Renamed and reformed, Alaska Southern begins scheduled passenger and air express services in mid-1933 to Sitka via Chichagof and Ketchikan, and Ketchikan to Klawock. The year’s operations are successful and the company pays a dividend, the first by an American airline not on government subsidy.
Early in 1934, the two Lockheed Model 5 floatplane Vegas begin flights from Juneau to Seattle via Ketchikan. One of the Vegas, the Baranof, piloted by Gene Meyring with four aboard, crashes while landing at Pinta Bay on October 10 (one dead). This service runs square across the developing route system of Pan American Airways (PAA) subsidiary Pacific Alaska Airways. Unable to compete with one Vega, Alaska Southern is sold to Pan Am on November 13 and merged.
World History
