A Black-owned airline once existed in Atlanta, GA.
It was evident from a young age that Michael Hollis was going to accomplish great things. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that when he was 15, Hollis was named the head of Atlanta Youth Congress while working on the mayoral campaign for Sam Massell.
Hollis would go on to pursue a career in law. First, he obtained a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. Then, he attended the University of Virginia School of Law to earn a JD degree. There he made history as the first Black president of the American Bar Association, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Hollis’s career track record includes becoming vice president at the investment firm Oppenheimer & Co. He also became a serial entrepreneur, responsible for various businesses across Atlanta, including Air Atlanta, which launched after the Deregulation Act of 1978, notes the Atlanta History Center. This law decreased federal control over the commercial industry, paving the way for Hollis and others to launch new commercial airlines.
“I’m sitting in my office at the Export-Import Bank. Michael comes into my office, closes the door, and says, ‘Look man, I’m going to run something past you,’” Hollis’ brother, Julius, recalled, per Atlanta History Center.
“He said, ‘I’ve done my research, and with the deregulation of the airlines and the CAB, I’m going to put an airline together,’” Julius continued.
Hollis left his post at Oppenheimer & Co. and launched Air Atlanta in 1981 at age 27, investing $35,000 from his mother and grandmother’s life savings, reports the Atlanta History Center. His family invested $100,000 in total. The airline’s first flight took off three years later.
“That was the heaven-blessed seed money that he used to attract the first serious investment. So, we couldn’t fail because that would be risking the life savings,” Julius explained, according to the Atlanta History Center.
Air Atlanta grew quickly and earned praise from President Ronald Reagan, the Atlanta History Center notes. The airline reached dozens of major cities, including Detroit, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., History of Black Travel reports. Still, the airline faced several challenges, including a $10 million shortfall that lead the company to file for bankruptcy in 1987, per the Atlanta History Center.
In 2012, Hollis passed away from pancreatic cancer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, but his legacy lives on.
Air Atlanta is among a handful of other Black-owned airlines throughout history, including Wheeler Airlines, which was the first of its kind in the United States and went bankrupt in the 1990s, per Airway Magazine. Today, Western Air is one of the few remaining black-owned airlines. It is the largest privately owned airline in the Bahamas, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.
