How a flying boat across Tampa Bay launched commercial aviation
On New Year's Day 1914, pilot Tony Jannus taxied a Benoist XIV flying boat across the St. Petersburg waterfront and flew one paying passenger — former mayor Abe Pheil — across Tampa Bay to Tampa. That 23-minute hop launched the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, the world's first scheduled airline. It operated four months, carrying 1,200 passengers at $5 a ticket. That single flight sparked an industry now carrying 4 billion people a year. Land at Albert Whitted (KSPG) and stand where it all began.