HISTORY OF AIRLINE SERVICE AT COLUMBUS, GA
Part two: 1960s - 1970s
A 1960s postcard view of Columbus Muscogee County Airport.
Mid-South Airways briefly operated commuter service to Columbus in 1960 with a daily round trip to Augusta, GA via Macon and Americus. Timetable courtesy of Don Henchel.
A detail of a 1961 Airline Map of the United States courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection shows Columbus as a stop along numerous "milk runs" between larger cities. Trunk airlines Eastern and Delta are shown in red and local service airline Southern is in green.
Jet service to Columbus began in 1968. A shiny new Delta Air Lines Douglas DC-9 is pictured on the ramp in this July 16, 1968 photo.
With their new fast jets, Southern Airways boldly inaugurated DC-9 service between Columbus, Washington, DC and New York City in 1968, bypassing connections with major airlines in Atlanta. This September 3, 1968 timetable shows two daily non-stops to Washington Dulles, continuing on to New York LaGuardia. Image courtesy of Bjorn Larsson at timetableimages.com.
A Delta DC-9-14 in the sideways widget paint scheme at Columbus in 1968.
A December 8, 1968 aerial view of CSG shows construction of the extension of runway 5/23.
A close up of the terminal from the same December 8, 1968 photo shows a pair of Convair 340/440s on the ramp. An educated guess is that the plane at left is an Eastern 440 and the plane at right with the darkly painted engines is a Delta 440.
A Southern Airways ad from early 1970 announcing five daily non-stops between Columbus, GA and the New York area.
An Eastern Air Lines DC-9 landing at Columbus Metropolitan Airport on November 2, 1970.
The October 15, 1971 Official Airline Guide shows 27 daily or near-daily arrivals at Columbus with all but 5 being flown with DC-9s.
A Southern Airways DC-9 taxis to the terminal on January 7, 1972
Southern Airways Martin 404 at Columbus sometime in 1973. Photo courtesy of Alan.
Southern Martin 404 N587S at CSG in 1973. Photo courtesy of Alan.
Photo of Ray P. Saffold, the first passenger to fly out of Columbus when Eastern initiated service on August 1, 1944. He was 15 at the time. This was taken on the 30th anniversary of that flight.
A wonderful view of a Delta DC-9-32 at Columbus Metropolitan in 1975. Photo from the collection of Alan.
It was often standing room only during the midday rush in the 1970s as the old terminal was regularly packed with soldiers from nearby Ft. Benning as seen in this September 23, 1976 photo.
Delta Air Lines city timetable effective April 24, 1977 shows a total of nine daily departures from Columbus: five to Atlanta, one to Baton Rouge, one to Monroe, LA with continuing service to Dallas/Ft. Worth, and two to Montgomery. All flights were operated with Douglas DC-9-32s.
Following the passage of airline deregulation in 1978, major airlines began to cut short haul service to small and medium size cities in favor of more profitable routes. Southern Airways left Columbus in April 1979, nearly 30 years since their first DC-3 made its inaugural flight. Eastern's May 1, 1979 timetable shows service to Columbus reduced to only a single flight a day. Their final Columbus flight departed on May 30, 1979.
Anticipating that is was only a matter of time before Columbus and other cities across the south would soon be facing drastic reductions or complete elimination of air service, three Southern Airways executives formed Atlantic Southeast Airlines. On June 27, 1979, ASA's very first revenue flight, a Twin Otter from Columbus to Atlanta, took to the sky.
Anticipating that is was only a matter of time before Columbus and other cities across the south would soon be facing drastic reductions or complete elimination of air service, three Southern Airways executives formed Atlantic Southeast Airlines. On June 27, 1979, ASA's very first revenue flight, a Twin Otter from Columbus to Atlanta, took to the sky.
ASA's Twin Otter being loaded for the airline's first flight to Atlanta.
ASA's service was an immediate success. Their September 15, 1979 timetable shows six daily or near-daily round trips between Columbus and Atlanta.
Air South began flying between Columbus and Atlanta on September 1, 1979 using ex-Southern Airways Martin 404s, but service soon ended when the airline went out of business in January 1980.
