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The story
Founded by Michael R. Hollis in 1984.1
The airline was started in February 1984, by attorneys Michael Hollis and Daniel Kolber. Besides operating point to point service as an independent air carrier, it also provided passenger feed for Pan American World Airways as "Air Atlanta Pan Am Express", connecting Pan Am passengers to and from flights operated by Air Atlanta.
Air Atlanta's first scheduled route was Atlanta-Memphis, with the first flight being operated on February 1, 1984, using a Boeing 727-100 jetliner. By April 1, 1984, nonstop 727 service was being operated Atlanta-Memphis, Atlanta-Miami and Atlanta-New York JFK Airport. By July 1, 1985, Atlanta-New York LaGuardia Airport nonstop service had been added as well. The airline subsequently introduced service to Detroit, Fort Myers, Greenbrier/Lewisburg, WV, New Orleans, Orlando, Philadelphia, Tampa, and Washington National Airport in Crystal City, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.
When Air Atlanta initially began service, every seat was a first class seat with meals served on white linen accompanied by fine china and crystal although the airline stated that it was charging coach fares for this service. Air Atlanta then introduced two class service on its Boeing 727 aircraft with 2-2 seating in first class and 2-3 seating in coach with the latter cabin usually being configured with 3-3 seating by most other air carriers that operated the 727. The airline flew three million passengers before it shut down on April 2, 1987, when it filed bankruptcy. At the time it filed, KLM offered to invest $10 million in Air Atlanta if the existing investors would match it. The existing investors declined even though Air Atlanta was making progress. Air Atlanta had a perfect safety record and was responsible for many innovations in the airline industry including with respect to financing its operations through the use of the zero coupon convertible note.
From Wikipedia’s article on Air Atlanta, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4