An article on the history of Salt Lake International Airport from The Desert News on Sept 26, 1980 discusses the Redman’s historic airline reservation:
# Birth of Aviation

## The History of Commercial Aviation



# First U.S. Commercial Airline Passenger

On May 23, 1926, Western Air Express inaugurated the “first scheduled airline passenger service” in the United States, flying the nation’s first commercial airline passenger from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. Although a few early airboat ventures provided regularly scheduled service along coastal locations prior to 1926, this first flight by Western Air Express would give birth to the first year-round airline transportation service using landplanes and land-based runways. This “fixed route” overland passenger service marked the beginning of passenger airtravel in the U.S. as we know it today. It would also serve as the inception of what would go on to be referred to as the “first profitable airline in the world” and the only successful survivor of the nation’s early commercial air transportation ventures.

## THE FIRST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT AND PASSENGER

Upon arrival of this first commercial flight, there was a ceremony that included presentation of the certificate below, which is now part the BirthofAviation.org collection. Signed by Western Air Express pilot Jimmy James, it confirms Mr. Ben F. Redman of Salt Lake City, Utah as the first official passenger. Today, through the Delta family tree of airlines, the ticket issued to Mr. Redman remains the oldest passenger airline ticket of surviving legacy in the U.S.

Certificate presented in a ceremony after Western Air Express’s inauguration of passenger service on May 23, 1926, which represented the first “regularly scheduled passenger flight” in the United States. Part of the BirthofAviation.org Collection.

Preferred Citation: Courtesy of BirthofAviation.org

## Related Quotes

Richard O. Hallion writes in Legacy of Flight: The Guggenheim Contribution to American Aviation:

The April 17, 1944 edition of the Salt Lake City Tribune describes the historic “first flight”:

An article on the history of Salt Lake International Airport from The Desert News on Sept 26, 1980 discusses the Redman’s historic airline reservation:

Referring to the low interest loan awarded to Western Air Express by the Guggenheim Fund to support a “model airline” experiment that was to benefit the entire aviation industry, the Harry Guggenheim page for the National Aviation Hall of Fame states:

Robert Serling describes the first flight in his book, The Only Way to Fly: The Story of Western Airlines, America’s Senior Air Carrier: