Atlas Air to acquire Southern Air for $110m

The big news of the day is that Atlas Air is to buy Southern Air, via the smaller airline’s parent Worldwide Air Logistics Group. The synergies are clear: both are significant suppliers of capacity to DHL. Southern Air last year acquired Florida West International Airways, a Miami airline which flies three 767-300Fs for LAN Cargo, and in November, Southern added another 777F and a 737-400 to its fleet for DHL Express. There had been speculation that Atlas would be interested in acquiring a stake in a European company after its 49% subsidiary GSS lost its UK AOC, but clearly it is first focusing on strengthening its fleet, via a US outfit.