Tampa International Airline Services: Tampa Bay Hosts First Commercial Airlines

Today's Tampa International Airport, formerly Drew Field (1928) and later renamed Drew Army Base during World War II, has a long history in passenger aviation. Tampa Bay is known around the world as the place where commercial airline service was first created, when the St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line transported its first passengers in a Benoist Flying Boat on January 1, 1914. Since that day in 1914, the commercial airline services at this Tampa Bay location have grown into one of the best-known and well-designed international airports in the world. Here are a few of the events that have taken place between 1946 and today to transform this once very small airfield into a mega commercial international airlines haven:

During World War II, the government modernized and expanded Drew Field.
After World War II, Eastern and National Airlines, formerly flying out of the smaller Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Island, Tampa Bay, Florida, moved to Drew Field to begin flying national commercial airlines flights in the newly-developed Douglas and Lockheed prop liners, as Drew Field was then converted into a terminal.
In 1950, an annex was built onto the terminal to service international airline carriers, Capital, Delta, Northeast, Northwest, and TWA, that then flew out of the newly named Tampa International Airport.
As aviation was further developed by companies such as McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed, beginning in 1959, jetliners and turbo jets began to fly out of the airport, and by 1961 Pan American was flying to Mexico.
The airline services clogged the facility with traffic, and a new Landside/Airside design for new facilities began in 1965, which resulted in even further expansion of airline services, and, in 1971, the newly built facilities opened, and by the end of the year, jumbo jets were flying out of the facilities.
In 1977, DC-10's were making transatlantic flights to Amsterdam and Paris.
Since 1977, expansions have been made to the Tampa International Airport's well-known Landside/Airside Terminal, and more expansions and improvements are to be made by 2010, when its 20-million passenger service capacity will be stretched to the limit.

Today, if you want to fly from Tampa International Airport to Canada, where Trans Canada Airlines first created international airline services in 1950, some round-trip flights booked online with online international booking services are around $100 or less. A very economical international trip from Canada to Florida.

For information on international airline services that offer flights to and from Tampa International Airport, check out the following traveler's search engine at Sidestep.com for more details. There are several travel agents and online booking services that can locate extremely reasonable international flight ticket prices for travel from or to Tampa International Airport.