Southern Sky Aviation was founded in Birmingham nearly three years ago and has grown to 65 employees. One of the company’s planes is pictured above.
Birmingham-based Southern Sky Aviation has added 65 jobs since its formation nearly three years ago, the company told the Birmingham Business Alliance recently.
The company, in operation since 2017, offers charter flights and aircraft maintenance, avionics, management and brokerage, combining to make it a full-service aviation company.
Southern Sky Aviation’s addition of 65 jobs landed it on the Birmingham Business Alliance’s New and Expanding Industry List from 2018. Most of the jobs added are in the company’s maintenance division, and many of them are aircraft maintenance technicians, said Donald Howell, president and CFO of Southern Sky Aviation. Howell said the company provides overnight maintenance to all commercial airlines flying into Birmingham, and as such, the uptick in jobs was necessary.
“[Our work] is very important in attracting and retaining commercial air carriers in this [Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International] airport,” he said.
Currently, about 75 percent of Southern Sky Aviation’s business is from business travel, with the other 25 percent generated from individual consumers, Howell said.
Bo Andrews, a pilot himself and the CEO of Southern Sky Aviation, founded the company with Bill Gunnells, now the company’s chairman of the board. Andrews said he remembers Birmingham being a hotbed for corporate travel in the late 1980s when he was learning to fly, but the financial crisis of the late 2000s left a void in the region, he said. Three years ago, he and Gunnells decided they wanted to take their shared passion for aviation and bring its prominence back to the city.
“We want to serve the Birmingham community, support the local economy and bring aviation back to Birmingham,” Andrews said. “I’m from Birmingham, so there is no other option for me. This is where I want to live, and I want to help create jobs in our community.”
Creating these jobs contributes to that effort, Howell said.
“Birmingham was once a hub for aviation jobs,” he said. “We are trying to build a Birmingham-based aviation company and bring those skilled jobs back to Birmingham.”
Southern Sky Aviation flies across the Southeast and the United States, with a significant percentage of flights going to Boston, New York City and Chicago. And Southern Sky Aviation continues to expand its reach – earlier this year it received Federal Aviation Administration authorization for international travel in the Western hemisphere, giving the company approval to operate charter flights to the Caribbean, Canada, and Central and South America.