Southern Airways Express Purchases Mokulele Airlines
Southern Airways Express, who operates 600 weekly flights as a part 135 carrier, has acquired Hawaiian-based Mokulele Airlines.
The acquisition is Southern’s third in the last four years. In the previous acquisitions Southern changed the names of the carriers and rebranded them into its own operations.
Unlike the previous deals, Southern intends to keep the Mokulele brand active within Hawaii – though all flight operations will eventually merge into the single Southern Airways FAA operating certificate.
“The Mokulele brand is beloved in the Hawaiian Islands,” said Stan Little, chairman and CEO of Southern “I’ve found their aloha spirit to be very similar to our company’s core values, so we are truly excited about adding the Mokulele name to the Southern family of companies.”
Little said of the merger “We’ve looked at several potential acquisitions over the last couple of years. This was the first opportunity that I believed to be the perfect complement to operation. We fly the same aircraft type, we have similar operational structures and their assets and revenue streams help diversify our balance sheet. This acquisition will give the newly-combined company stability in an otherwise volatile marketplace, while making Southern Airways a nationally-recognized brand.”
One of Southern’s goals in the merger is for the expanded company to be able to obtain additional interline ticket and baggage agreements with major airlines. Southern Airways Express has interline agreements with American Airlines and Condor Airlines. Mokulele has interline agreements with Alaska Airlines and Air New Zealand. Expanding partnerships to include multiple national and global carriers will be the focus of Southern post-integration.
About Southern Airways Express
Southern Airways Express is a Mississippi based commuter airline that operates under part 135 of the federal aviation regulations. The airline was founded in 2013 and now serves 20 cities – some of the cities are served under Essential Air Service (EAS) grants.
Southern Airways Express operates Cessna C208 single engine turbine airplanes and Piper PA-31 Chieftain twin-engine piston airplanes.
Southern Airways Express Pilot Jobs
Southern Airways Express is hiring pilots to fly as part 135 captains. Requirements to apply for the position include:
- ATP Certificate or Commercial Pilot Certificate with Single Engine Land; Instrument Rating
- First class medical certificate
- Part 135 instrument minimums including 1,200 hours of total flight time. This also requires 500 hours of cross country experience, 100 hours of night time, with 75 hours of instrument time.
- Company prefers C208 experience, 100 hours of turbine flight time, and previous part 135 experience
Working as a part 135 pilot on smaller equipment is considered a low hour or entry level pilot position.
About Mokulele Airlines
Mokulele Airlines is a commuter airline based in Kona on the big island of Hawaii. The airline was founded in 1994 as Mokulele Flight Service by Rebecca “Kawehi” Inaba, and was the first airline in Hawaii to be founded by a Native Hawaiian woman.
Mokulele Airlines operates Cessna C208 in its airline operations and also operates two Pilatus PC-12s on behalf of Lanai Air.
Mokulele Airlines Pilot Jobs
Mokulele Airlines does not list available pilot jobs on its website.
Greg started his professional pilot journey in 2002 after graduating from Embry Riddle. Since that time he has accumulated over 8,000 hours working as a pilot. Greg’s professional experience includes flight instructing, animal tracking, backcountry flying, forest firefighting, passenger charter, part 135 cargo, flying for a regional airline, a national low cost airline, a legacy airline, and also working as a manager in charge of Part 135 and Part 121 training programs.
