Important Milestones in Air Freight History 1910 to 1950:

1910: A Dayton Ohio Department store ships a bolt of silk to Columbus Ohio beating
the train traveling the same route.

1919: American Railway Express using a converted Handley-Page bomber attempted to fly 500 kilograms of freight from Washington, D.C., to Chicago. Unfortunately, the plane was forced to land in Ohio, However this company often moved freight by air.

1920’s: The Ford Motor Company using Henry Fords Express Company started shipping air freight in 1925 and by the end of decade, this air freight averaged over 3 million pounds a year. American Railway Express (renamed Railway Express Agency in 1929) and the United States Postal Services were also major carriers during the 20’s. National Air Transport, one of the companies that originally made up United Airlines, delivered the first air cargo in the United States on September 1, 1927, between Dallas and New York.

Airlines across the country flew freight in the late 1920s, benefiting American businesses when they needed parts or merchandise as quickly as possible. The advent of air freight also allowed businesses to keep less inventory on hand.

1930’s: General Air Express formed in 1932 as a competitor to Railway Express Agency and due to aggressive competition between the two companies, neither did well until they merged in 1935. By the mid 30’s, air freight made up 4% of revenues from all air traffic. These amounts increased during the 30’ as air freight became a more widely publicized way of moving goods between cities.

1940’s: Some historians believe that when United Airlines began it’s own freight service in 1940, that this was the first all-cargo service in U.S. airline history carrying mail between New York and Chicago. By 1941, the “Big Four” airlines—United, American, TWA, and Eastern—formed Air Cargo, Inc. which carried air freight but by the end of the way, many of the airlines involved started their own air freight businesses. During the 1940’s some of the other well known air freight carriers were Slick Airways, Flying Tiger and California Eastern. In truth there were many small air freight carriers and regional airlines were also carrying some freight. In August 1949, the government's Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) finally gave permission to four all-freight airlines to operate. These were Slick, Flying Tiger, U.S. Airlines, and Airnews.

Today the air freight business is measured in the billions of dollars and competition now comes from carriers located across the Globe. Just Ship It is proud to be one the companies providing quality services to the air freight and transportation business for the past 30 years.

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