Chicago and Southern (C & S) Air Lines

When Memphis, Tennessee-based Chicago and Southern merged with Delta in 1953, its routes brought Delta's first international service—out of gateway city New Orleans to the Caribbean and Venezuela.

Twenty years earlier, C&S had started out as a little local airline flying Los Angeles-San Francisco. Let's take a look at how C&S grew!

Founded as Pacific Seaboard Air Lines
"Good planes, good engines, cautious and capable personnel and then, just open the throttle and take off." Carleton Putnam's formula for building an airline, 1945

Chicago and Southern's founder, Carleton Putnam, began his career in law and politics before discovering aviation. While walking down a New York City street one day, he saw an airplane for sale and bought it. He arranged for flying lessons packaged as a cross-country flight, and by the time he reached California, Putnam had decided to try his hand in the field of air transportation.

Putnam's new airline, Pacific Seaboard Air Lines, made its first flight on June 25, 1933, without benefit of an airmail contract. Flying from Los Angeles along the seaboard route to San Francisco, the airline stopped at Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Paso Robles, Salinas and Monterey, California. Fares were "3½ cents per mile—cheaper than driving your car."

Chicago-New Orleans Route Won
In 1934, the U.S. Post Office's call for new bids on all airmail routes gave Putnam hope for financial stability, and he sought one of these contracts. When his bid for the Chicago-New Orleans route won, he shifted operations to the Mississippi Valley.

Putnam's airline inaugurated mail service between Chicago and New Orleans via Memphis, Tennessee, on June 3, 1934; passengers were first flown over the route on July 13, 1934. In 1935, the company name changed to Chicago and Southern Air Lines.

Growth and Wartime Work
C&S continued to expand service during the 1940s, interrupted by World War II activities. Flights started between Memphis and Houston, Texas, via Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1941. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, C&S quickly opened a modification center to prepare U.S. Army combat aircraft for immediate use in war zones.

Post war, the airline experienced rapid route expansion. C&S reached the most northern city on its route when it started service to Detroit, on June 1, 1945. New domestic destinations were added in the Midwest and the South—to Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri and Texas—until the end of the decade. Continuing southward, C&S launched its first international service.

International Service
C&S was awarded its first international route on May 24, 1946, to the Caribbean. Operating from its gateway city of New Orleans, C&S ultimately flew to Havana, Cuba; Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Aruba and Curaco, Netherlands Antilles; Cuidad Trujillo [today's Santo Domingo], Dominican Republic; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Caracas, Venezuela.

Merger with Delta
Like many airlines in the early 1950s, C&S began to consider the prospect of a merger as a method of expanding its route system. With the complementary character of the Delta and C&S route systems and the fact that both companies shared a common business philosophy, a merger appeared natural. On May 1, 1953, the Civil Aeronautics Board formally transferred the routes of Chicago and Southern to Delta Air Lines. After the merger, the airline operated as Delta-C&S for a couple of years, before continuing as "Delta" in Summer 1955.

C&S Aircraft

Pics, Video & Books

• Delta Blog: "55 Years of International Service" – read more »
• Delta Blog: "Origins of Delta's International Service" – read more »
• YouTube: "Air Transport Jobs," a 1947 film with C&S DC-4 ground shots and airline employees at work at Chicago-Midway airport. – watch video »
• Ad*Access: Duke University's collection of C&S ads. – view ads »
• Airline Timetable Images: C&S timetables (covers-only and complete issues) and baggage labels. – view images »
• Flickr: Photos of C&S items on display at the Delta Museum, 2009. – view images »
• Book: Delta: An Airline and Its Aircraft: An Illustrated History of a Major U.S. Airline and the People Who Made It, by R.E.G. Davies, 1990. The C&S section of this book includes C&S history, aircraft photos, route maps, and detailed fleet listings.
• Book: High Journey: A Decade in the Pilgrimage of an Air Line Pioneer, by Carleton Putnam, 1945.
• Article: "Delta Lady: Chicago & Southern Air Lines," Airways, December 2010.
  • See article abstract & a vintage C&S image »
  • Purchase issue »
• Article: "Aircraft History of Chicago and Southern Air Lines, 1933-1953," by Walt Bohl, American Aviation Historical Society Journal, vol. 46:2 (Summer 2001). To read article's opening, see a C&S aircraft photo and order back issue »