The first scheduled airline flight with a winged aircraft took off on January 1, 1914, from the waterfront of St. Petersburg, Florida. A small wooden flying boat crossed Tampa Bay to Tampa in about 23 minutes, carrying one pilot and one paying passenger. The St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line lasted only a few months, but it proved something no one had shown before: people would buy tickets to fly on a timetable, and a plane could earn its keep doing it.
Why Tampa Bay needed an airline
In 1914 St. Petersburg and Tampa sat about 20 miles apart across open water, but no bridge connected them. The Gandy Bridge did not open until 1924. Travelers had three choices: a steamer across the bay that took about two hours, a roundabout rail trip that could take most of a day, or a long drive on poor roads around the head of the bay. For a growing winter resort that wanted business travelers and tourists, the gap was a real handicap.
Percival Elliott Fansler, a Florida businessman with a strong interest in aviation, saw that the bay crossing was the perfect test case for a passenger air service. The distance was short, the water was calm most days, and a flying boat could land almost anywhere along the shore. He contacted Thomas W. Benoist, an aircraft builder in St. Louis, Missouri, whose company had been building flying boats for river flying on the Mississippi.
The deal and the aircraft
Fansler sold the idea to the St. Petersburg Board of Trade. Local businessmen guaranteed a subsidy for a three-month trial during the winter tourist season, in return for a fixed number of daily round trips. Benoist agreed to supply the airplanes and pilots.
The airline’s main aircraft was a Benoist Type XIV, It was a biplane flying boat with a wooden hull, a single engine of about 75 horsepower driving a pusher propeller, and an open cockpit with room for the pilot and one passenger side by side. The airboats arrived in St. Petersburg by rail at the end of December 1913. A second, slightly larger Benoist boat joined the line later and could carry two passengers.
January 1, 1914: the first flight
The seat on the opening flight was auctioned in front of a crowd of about 3,000 people at the St. Petersburg municipal pier. Abram C. Pheil, a former mayor of St. Petersburg, won with a bid of $400, a large sum at the time and more than $12,000 in today’s money.
At 10 a.m. pilot Tony Jannus took off with Pheil beside him. Jannus was 24 years old and already one of the best-known exhibition pilots in the country. He kept the flying boat low over the water the whole way, often only a few feet above the waves. The crossing to the mouth of the Hillsborough River in Tampa took 23 minutes. After a short stop, Jannus flew back to St. Petersburg. A steamer would have needed around two hours for the same trip one way.
How the airline operated
After opening day the line flew a regular schedule: two round trips a day, six days a week, with extra flights when demand was high. The normal fare was $5 one way, about the price of a good hotel room. Passengers over 200 pounds paid extra, because the airboat’s payload was tight. Freight cost $5 per 100 pounds; the very first cargo was a bundle of St. Petersburg Times newspapers.
- Service period: January 1 to May 5, 1914
- Flights: 172 recorded trips
- Passengers: about 1,200
- Distance flown: more than 7,000 miles in total
- Serious accidents: none
Weather was the main limit. Strong winds and rough water could keep the airboats on the beach, and mechanical problems occasionally forced a landing on the bay. Because the aircraft floated, a forced landing usually meant a wait for repairs or a tow, not a crash.
Why the line closed
The subsidy contract ran for the three-month winter season. When it expired at the end of March, the line continued on its own for a few more weeks, but the tourists who had filled the seats went north for the summer. Without the guarantee and with fewer passengers, the income no longer covered pilots, fuel and maintenance. The last flight took place on May 5, 1914. Plans for a second season fell apart when the First World War began that summer and shifted aviation toward military work.
The airline did not fail because flying did not work. It closed because a two-seat airplane could not carry enough passengers to pay its way without help. That problem would shape the airline business for the next 20 years.
The people behind it
Tony Jannus
Antony Habersack Jannus learned to fly in 1910 and set several early records, including a long-distance flight down the Mississippi. After the Tampa Bay season he worked as a test pilot. He died in October 1916 in Russia while training pilots and testing a Curtiss H-7 flying boat for the Russian government. His brother Roger, also a pilot for the airline, was killed in France in 1918.
Thomas Benoist
Benoist kept building aircraft in St. Louis and Sandusky, Ohio, and planned larger airliners. He died in a streetcar accident in 1917, and his company did not survive him.
Percival Fansler
Fansler remained an advocate for commercial flying and is remembered as the organizer who turned an idea into a working business plan.
From one passenger to a national industry
Most early commercial flying in the United States after 1914 was mail, not passengers. Several laws and aircraft turned it into the airline business:
- 1918: the U.S. Post Office starts scheduled airmail between Washington, Philadelphia and New York.
- 1925: the Kelly Air Mail Act lets private companies bid for mail routes, the foundation of many later airlines.
- 1926: the Air Commerce Act brings federal licensing of pilots and aircraft and federal airways.
- 1927: Charles Lindbergh’s nonstop New York-Paris flight sets off a boom in public interest and investment.
- 1933: the Boeing 247, an all-metal twin-engine airliner, shows what a modern passenger plane looks like.
- 1936: the Douglas DC-3 enters service; it is the first airliner that can make money from passengers alone.
- 1958: Pan Am starts transatlantic Boeing 707 service and the jet age begins.
- 1978: the Airline Deregulation Act ends federal control of routes and fares, opening the market to low-cost carriers.
How the first airline is remembered
St. Petersburg and Tampa still mark the anniversary. The St. Petersburg Museum of History displays a full-size flyable replica of the Benoist airboat, and a replica re-flew the route across the bay for the centennial in 2014. Since 1964 the Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society has presented the Tony Jannus Award each year to a leader in commercial aviation. Past recipients include airline founders, aircraft designers and astronauts.
The airboat line is also a fixture in aviation history courses for a simple reason: it had every element of a modern airline on a tiny scale. It sold tickets, kept a timetable, carried freight, relied on public support and lived or died by its load factor.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the first commercial flight in history?
The first scheduled commercial airline flight with an airplane was the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line’s crossing of Tampa Bay on January 1, 1914, flown by Tony Jannus with Abram C. Pheil as the paying passenger.
How much did a ticket cost?
The first seat was auctioned for $400. Regular passengers paid $5 one way, with a surcharge for heavier travelers.
How long did the airline operate?
From January 1 to May 5, 1914, a little over four months, with about 1,200 passengers and no serious accidents.
Where can the airboat be seen today?
A full-size replica of the Benoist airboat is on display at the St. Petersburg Museum of History on the city’s waterfront.
