PIA – A History: Air Service, 1932-1937
The last installment covered the air mail fiasco, which actually prompted airlines to place greater emphasis on passengers but also led to greater federal regulation. Now it is time to analyze commercial airline service at Peoria’s Municipal Airport during 1932-1937. American Airlines, Etc . When American Airways added Peoria as a stop on its Chicago-New Orleans mail route, it was using nine-passenger Fairchild “Pilgrim” F100 aircraft. Service began December 10, 1932. The schedule below, culled from an American Airways timetable dated October 27, 1933, shows five arriving and five departing flights daily, including one in each direction on a Chicago-Peoria-Springfield-St. Louis-Jackson (MS)-Memphis route, one in each direction on a Detroit-Chicago-Peoria-Springfield-St. Louis route and a northbound St. Louis-Springfield-Peoria-Chicago flight. The Air Mail Fiasco, and the subsequent termination of existing contracts, took Peoria off the air mail routes effective Tue...