South Central Air Transport (SCAT), a commuter airline, was serving the airport as well with Handley Page Jetstream propjets nonstop from Jackson, MS and Tupelo with direct, no change of plane service from New Orleans. Southern Airways then merged with North Central Airlines to form Republic Airlines which in turn was continuing to serve Columbus in late 1979 with all of its flights into the airport operated with jets including the Douglas DC-9-10 as well as the larger McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 with nonstop DC-9 flights from Memphis and Tuscaloosa in addition to direct one stop DC-9 flights from Atlanta for a total of six jet flights every weekday. Republic also served the airport with McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jets and Convair 580 turboprops during the early and mid 1980s before ending its service to Columbus by 1986. By early 1985, in addition to Republic's DC-9 jet service, Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) had begun serving the airport as the Delta Connection on behalf of Delta Air Lines via a code sharing agreement with flights operated with Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante commuter turboprops on nonstop flights from Atlanta, Memphis and Tuscaloosa. Three airlines were serving Columbus in late 1989 including American Eagle (airline brand) operating code sharing service on behalf of American Airlines with nonstop flights from Nashville and Meridian flown with Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner commuter propjets, Delta Connection operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines on behalf of Delta via a code sharing agreement with Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia commuter propjets nonstop from Atlanta and Tuscaloosa, and Northwest Airlink operated by Express Airlines I on a code sharing basis for Northwest Airlines with British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 and Saab 340 commuter propjets nonstop from Memphis and Tupelo. In early 2006, Chautauqua Airlines, a Republic Airways Holdings company, operated flights under the Delta Connection banner via a code sharing agreement on behalf of Delta Air Lines. Until Delta ceased its hub operation at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) in February 2005, GTR had one flight per day to DFW. Four flights per day to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) as Delta Connection code sharing service remained until late 2005. In 2006, there were three flights per day to ATL. Mesaba Aviation operating code sharing service as Northwest Airlink on behalf of Northwest Airlines flew to Memphis from GTR, but they ceased these operations in 2003 citing a desire to not compete with