Southern Airways ExpressThursday afternoon, the signature single-prop, nine-seater plane associated with Southern Airways Express popped into Chattanooga for a moment, and a woman headed to Memphis to see her son climbed on-board.
The plane buzzed, waddled down the tarmac and took off toward Blues City.
And that’s how the commuter airliner’s direct-from-Chattanooga-to-Memphis service began.
Keith Sisson, the chief operating oficer of Southern Airways Express, was on that plane. He attended a company press conference in Knoxville on Thursday morning, then made the trip into Chattanooga before landing back at home in Memphis an hour-and-a-half later.
Two hours in the air, nearly 500 miles covered. Driving the state and hitting the same three cities would be a minimum six-and-a-half hour commitment.