New Orleans, LA 1933-1953

This airline started as Pacific Seaboard Air Lines. The first service was on June 23, 1933. The new airline flew passengers on the west coast of California. The airline had no air mail contract as these had been awarded to United Airlines. On February 9, 1934, the federal Government canceled all the U.S. Mail contracts. The U.S. Army operated the air postal service for a few weeks and then the government called for a new bidding of the Air Mail routes. The owner of Pacific Seaboard Air Lines bid on and received the Air Mail route between Chicago and New Orleans. Air Mail service started June 3, 1934, and passenger service started June 13. The airline changed its name to Chicago and Southern Air Lines in 1935. Chicago and Southern continued flying north to south routes in the Midwest and later was awarded routes to the Caribbean. On 1 May 1953, C&S merged with Delta Air Lines, giving it access to a Great Lakes route system in the upper Midwest and, importantly, to points in thes Caribbean Sea. The airline operated as Delta C&S for the next two years and then the name was changed to Delta Airlines.