Vacationers looking for a fast escape from harsh winter weather, celebrated when Delta became the first airline with non-stop Chicago-Miami service on November 1, 1946. For $59 one-way, you could board a big, four-engined Douglas DC-4 aircraft with “44 roomy seats” and fly an average speed of 218 miles per hour. Flight time to the “Sunshine State” was a speedy 6 hours–slashing 2 hours from previous best schedules. 
Delta employees also rejoiced when the Chicago-Miami route award was announced in 1945. We were now a major airline, no longer offering just regional service, but flying to the second largest city in the U.S., over a route with great potential for vacation travel. For the first time we went head-to-head with Eastern Airlines instead of feeding traffic to their flights–the start of a long rivalry. As Rodger Meier, a Delta reservations supervisor in New Orleans, said at the time: “The Airline of the South now becomes The Airline of the Future.”
Marie Force
Archives Manager
