First Commercial Flight

On 1 January 1914, the first ever scheduled passenger flight took off, making the 35km journey across the water from St Petersburg to Tampa, in Florida.

flying Airboat between St. Petersburg and Tampa, United States of America.

Aboard the Benoist XIV was pilot Tony Jannus and his passenger, former St Petersburg mayor Abram C Pheil, who had paid US $400 at auction for the ticket, even if regular journeys on the newly-formed St Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line would cost US $5.

Over the next three months, two of the tiny biplanes, designed by flight pioneer Thomas W Benoist, carried 1,205 passengers across Tampa Bay – until war intervened, and the world’s first airline ran a ground.