
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 2, 1995                   TAG: 9509050047
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AIR SOUTH BEGINNING TO LOOK NORTH

Air South, a Columbia, S.C.-based airline, acknowledged this week that it has begun looking north to find new customers, including some in Virginia.

Tom Volz, Air South's vice president, said Washington, D.C.; Norfolk and Richmond plus Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio and Allentown, Pa., were all under review as possible destinations.

Officials at Roanoke Regional Airport also have talked with Air South about providing air service to Roanoke, said Mark Courtney, the airport's director of planning and market development. "We've given our best pitch to them," Courtney said Friday.

In June and July, Air South made monthly profits for the first time, reporting a total of $394,000.

Volz said the airline hadn't accumulated the operating reserves that are needed for expansion yet, adding Air South was investigating what it needs to do to lease airplanes.

Local incentives such as leasing a jet for Air South and advertising support would weigh heavily on the airline's expansion plans, he said.

``It's a question of how we match up with our current cities and more importantly the availability of aircraft,'' Volz said.

Volz said no new destinations would be announced before the end of the year.

Air South started in Columbia a year ago with $17 million in state and local governments grants and loans.

by CNB