Daily air service inaugurated

With fanfare and great excitement, daily air mail service was introduced into the Fort Myers area on April 1, 1926. Postmaster J. F. Brecht announced that a specially designed cancellation stamp would be used for all air mail dispatched from the city that day.

The circle imprint read "First Flight Inaugurating Contract Air Mail." In a smaller circle inside the larger one were printed the words, "Fort Myers, Fla. 8:45 AM. (or 12:30 P.M.), April 1,1926."

S. O. Goodman, President of the Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce, raved about the new service saying, "The inauguration of the cross-state air route is without a doubt one of the greatest accomplishments this state has experienced, while the beginning of air mail service today has a value which cannot be estimated in dollars and cents."

Several hundred local citizens who came out to witness the historic event watched as Mayor O. M. Davison and Postmaster Brecht climbed aboard the "Miss Miami," a Ford all-metal plane belonging to the Florida Airways Corporation. A bag containing 4,000 pieces of mail from local citizens was put aboard the plane for northern destinations. Brecht would travel as far as Tampa the plane's next stop.

Air service to Fort Myers was short-lived. Within weeks, problems had surfaced. According to the minutes of the Fort Myers City Commission dated April 16, 1926, Stanley Colquitt appeared to report he had been told by "one of the men operating the air mail planes that on account of the inadequacy of the field, they could carry only half the passenger capacity they could under favorable conditions."

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