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Regular air service to Amarillo was inaugurated May 29, 1929, at Old Municipal Airport, 4 miles west of here. It was initiated by Western Air Express, using a 12-passenger Fokker trimotor plane flying round trip from Los Angeles to Amarillo. This was the first segment of transcontinental air service, a tribute to the city and leaders who had worked to build the airport and secure air service. Transcontinental air transport launched on July 7,1929, the first continuous, regularly-scheduled air passenger and mail service from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its route had been surveyed by Charles Lindbergh soon after his 1927 world-record solo flight from New York to Paris. He and his wife and other celebrities were honored guests of Amarillo on that first transcontinental commercial flight. Reorganizations of companies originally flying commercial schedules to Amarillo resulted in the formation of Trans-World Airlines (TWA), now holding the record for longest service to this area. English Field, opened by Harold English in 1929, began handling commercial air traffic in 1930. In 1952 it was renamed Amarillo Air Terminal, and now handles the flights of six major airlines. (1966) |
