Aeromarine Airways -- April 5, 2014

Aeromarine Airways was a subsidiary of the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company.  Aeromarine Airways operated from 1920 to 1923.  The images and the text are from the 1922 Aircraft Yearbook. Be sure to click on the images to see larger versions. 
The first, and at the present time the only, regularly operated aerial transportation line in the United States, and the largest in the world, utilizing flying boats exclusively, is Aeromarine Airways, Inc., the service of which covers the Florida Straits, between Florida and Cuba, and various points in the Caribbean Sea.  The history of this company is an inspiring example of faith and courage.  The Key West-Havana route was selected in 1920, first, because of the extraordinary volume of traffic, pleasure and business the year round; second, because passage of the stormy Channel required an entire night of discomfort, and third, as the course lay over water, operation need not await the establishment of terminals or routes or even the enactment of Federal Law. 

Starting with one eleven-passenger cruiser, the fleet has been steadily increased until, at the close of 1921, it embraced thirty flying boats of various capacity, the are of operations being extended north along the Atlantic seaboard to Boston, and westward, over the Hudson and the Great Lakes to Chicago and Detroit; south through the Mississippi Valley to New Orleans, thence around the Gulf Coast to the Key West base.  During 1921, Aeromarine Airways flew 95,020 miles, according to their log, carrying 6814 passengers and 29,002 pounds of freight.  They operated their Cuban services daily, making a total of 162 flights during the season, maintaining an average scheduled time of 96 minutes for the 110 miles, and this frequently notwithstanding the gales which sweep the Straits.  and what is most important of all, there has never been a single person -- passenger or employee, injured.