Southern Airways acquires Air Choice One; Jonesboro carrier to be rebranded
by March 28, 2022 3:19 pm 1,777 views
Southern Airways Express has acquired St. Louis-based Air Choice One (Multi-Aero, Inc.). This is Southern’s fifth airline acquisition in the last eight years.
Terms of the deal, which was announced Monday (March 28) were not disclosed.
Southern was founded in Memphis in 2013. It now operates in 38 cities from Nantucket to Honolulu. Air Choice One currently has one contract in the Essential Air service program in Jonesboro. Service from Jonesboro will be rebranded as Southern, allowing the city access to Southern’s interline connectivity to major carriers. Southern has interline ticketing and baggage agreements with American, United and Alaska Airlines.
“This is yet another example of how Southern quickly adapts to the changing marketplace,” said Stan Little, chairman and CEO of Southern Airways. “Air Choice One has an incredibly positive reputation; so, combining their leadership team and assets into our company will allow us to quickly respond to the immediate need of providing affordable and reliable air service to more of rural America.”
The addition of Air Choice One grows Southern’s fleet size to nearly 50 aircraft and increases the number of pilots that Southern flows to the larger carriers.
As part of the acquisition, Air Choice One CEO Shane Storz will join Southern as an executive vice president. In addition to decades of industry experience, he will bring a leadership team and other support staff that will be absorbed into Southern’s current infrastructure, the two companies said.