HISTORY OF AIRLINE SERVICE AT ALBANY, GEORGIA
Southwest Georgia Regional Airport near Albany, Georgia is the 7th busiest commercial airport in the state with over 81,000 passengers passing through the terminal from March 2019 to February 2020. Sunshine Skies takes a look back at the various terminals and dozen airlines that have served Albany over the course of eight decades.
Albany's first passenger terminal was built in 1939-1940 to meet the needs of airline service that began in late 1938. Photo courtesy of the Vanishing Georgia archives.
Eastern Air Lines began service to Albany on October 10, 1938, presumably using a Douglas DC-2 as shown on this first flight cover.
This detail from an Eastern Air Lines route map effective January 15, 1939 shows Albany as a stop between Atlanta and Tallahassee. When the U.S. entered World War II, service to the southwest Georgia city was discontinued while Eastern reallocated resources to the war effort.
Service to Albany was reinstated on August 1, 1945.
In this detail from the route map found in Eastern's 1946 annual report, Albany is once again shown as a stop between Tallahassee and Atlanta.
Albany Airways inaugurated an Atlanta - Albany - Moultrie - Valdosta route on December 10, 1948 using 4-seat Beechcraft Bonanzas. A new certificated carrier, Southern Airways, would begin serving the same route six months later.
Southern Airways began flying to Albany on June 25, 1949 using Douglas DC-3s. This schedule shows that Albany was a quick 2 minute stop, one of many along an Atlanta - Jacksonville route with one daily flight in each direction. From the collection of Craig Morris via timetableimages.com.
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A detail from the 1961 Airline Map of the United States compiled by the Official Airline Guide showing Eastern's routes connecting Albany to Atlanta and Tallahassee and Southern's routes (in green) between Albany and Atlanta, Columbus, Moultrie and Valdosta. Major trunk airlines are shown in red and local service airlines are shown in green. Courtesy of the David Rumsey map collection.
Intra-state carrier Southeastern Airlines scheduled 6 flights a day at Albany during 1963 using 4-passenger, twin-engine Piper Apaches. This detail from the November 1963 Official Airline Guide, sent in by David H. Stringer, shows 3 flights in each direction along Atlanta - Florida routes. The number of stops along each route is astonishing and the turnaround and flight times are impossibly short.
The following 7 images are taken from a late 1960s newsfilm shot by Atlanta's WSB-TV. The short video clip from the Brown Media Archives has no sound and is unedited so it's not clear what the news story was about. It provides a great look back at the mid-century modern McAfee terminal which was named in honor of the recently deceased Mayor Bill McAfee when it opened in 1959.
Curbside view of the terminal.
View of the control tower.
Southern Airways Martin 404 rolls up to the gate.
The stunning mid-century interior, looking like something from a Stanley Kubrick movie.
The ticket counters of Southern Airways and Eastern Air Lines.
A closer view of the ticketing area.
And finally... here is the news clip. The film has no audio.
Nationwide Airlines Southeast started commuter service between Albany and Atlanta in 1968 with an average of 2 round trips each day.
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Nationwide Airlines Southeast became Air South in November 1968 and service continued at Albany using Beechcraft B99s.
This excerpt from Air South's September 2, 1969 timetable shows that the Atlanta - Albany route had been extended to Tifton, GA from Albany with two daily flights in each direction.
Three airlines operated 13 flights from 8 cities to Albany on an average day in October 1971, including six pure jet DC-9 flights.
Aerial view of Albany Airport on December 29, 1971 with a yellow arrow marking the location of the passenger terminal. It looks like a DC-9 heading for the departure end of runway 22 at top right.
Eastern Air Lines left Albany at the end of 1971. Air South, unable to compete with Southern's DC-9s to Atlanta, dropped Albany in the spring of 1972.
Southern Airways DC-9 at Albany on August 20, 1972. Photo credit: Frank Owens.
Southern Airways DC-9 at Albany on August 20, 1972. Photo credit: Frank Owens.
Southern Airways merged with North Central Airlines to from Republic Airlines on July 1, 1979. Republic began dismantling Southern's Atlanta hub almost immediately, eliminating service to several cities in Georgia and Alabama. Albany was spared during the first round of cutbacks and flights continued with various models of the DC-9, including the 130 passenger DC-9-51, the largest aircraft type to fly in regular service to ABY.
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Republic's October 31, 1982 timetable shows an average of 5 flights a day from Albany, 3 to Atlanta and 2 to Valdosta. There was also a Saturday flight to Dothan, part of an Atlanta - Albany - Dothan flight.
Anticipating Republic's eventual withdrawal from Albany, Atlantic Southeast Airlines began service on the Atlanta - Albany route on August 1, 1982 using 19 passenger Embraer Bandeirante turboprops. In 1983 ASA introduced the 48 passenger De Havilland Canada DHC-7 "Dash 7". Predictably, Republic began to cut back service at Albany, initially reducing the number of flights and switching some flights from DC-9 jets to smaller turboprop Convair 580s before leaving the city altogether in 1984.
In 1984, both Delta and Eastern partnered with commuter airlines to feed traffic from smaller communities around the south into Atlanta. ASA began operating as the Delta Connection and Eastern brought in Texas-based Metro Airlines to operate as Eastern Metro Express. Eastern Metro Express began high frequency turboprop flights using Jetstream 31s and De Havilland Canada Dash 8s. Through the late 1980s, the two airlines operated a combined average of 12 daily round trips between Albany and ATL.
Eastern Air Lines and Eastern Metro Express shut down in January 1991, leaving Delta Connection as the sole airline service at Albany for the following 3 decades.
An early 2000s view of the McAfee terminal built in 1959. Photo credit: Albany Herald
The following three photos of the McAfee terminal interior are courtesy of Blaine Peters and were taken during the 1990s.
The Delta ticket counter in the old McAfee terminal as it looked in 2011. Photo source: WALB Albany
Construction began in Spring 2012 on a new terminal to replace the 53 year old McAfee terminal. The new facility was completed in July of 2013. Photo source: EMC Engineering Services
A Delta Connection Regional Jet operated by ExpressJet (formerly ASA) on the ramp at Albany shortly before the completion of the new terminal in 2013. The Regional Jets replaced turboprops on all flights to Albany in the early 2000s. Photo source: EMC Engineering Services
The new Albany Southwest Georgia Regional Airport terminal opened on July 31, 2013. Photo source: EMC Engineering Services
Interior view of the new terminal. Photo credit: WALB Albany
ExpressJet Airlines Bombardier CRJ-200ER N859AS at Albany in 2016. At the time the airline was flying 3 daily round trips between ABY and ATL. In 2017 Endeavor Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, and Skywest Airlines, also operating as Delta Connection, took over Delta's flights to Albany. Photo credit: WALB
