On April 1, 1930, Pan American Airport at NW 36th Street was designated as the first international field Post Office in the country. The announcement followed almost a year’s worth of efforts by the U.S. postal service to effect greater efficiencies in U.S. Air Mail delivery by coordinating the schedules of airlines involved in operating international and domestic Air Mail routes with railway connections to cities not served by airports.

One of the obstacles that had to be overcome in Florida was the establishment of emergency landing fields equipped with beacon lights for night flying. Night flying afforded reductions of up to twenty-four hours in mail delivery time by allowing for improved air-rail connections. As late as June 1929, however, beacon lights between Jacksonville and Miami were non-existent. A campaign was launched by the Greater Miami Aviation Association and other air-minded Miamians to have lights installed by December 1929. It took a little longer than planned but by April 1, 1930, installation of beacon lights from Jacksonville to Miami was finally complete and the new schedules were ready to be rolled out.

The change in the service hooked up three major air systems — Pan Am’s South American Air Mail routes, Eastern Air Transport’s routes between Miami, Atlanta and New York, and the Transcontinental Air Transport system between New York and the Pacific Coast.

It should be noted that Eastern Air Transport was the successor company to Pitcairn Aviation, which had been operating Air Mail service out of Miami’s Municipal Airport to Atlanta and New York since December 1928. Pitcairn was acquired by Eastern Air Transport’s parent company, North American Aviation, Inc., in June 1929. Pitcairn’s name was changed to Eastern Air Transport in January of 1930. Later still, in 1934, Eastern Air Transport became Eastern Air Lines.

Several hundred people gathered at Pan American’s NW 36th Street Airport in the late afternoon of April 1st for inauguration ceremonies organized by the Greater Miami Airport Association. An Eastern Air Transport Super Mailwing monoplane departed promptly at 5:43 PM carrying local, West Indian and Central American Air Mail flown to Miami by Pan Am for delivery to cities throughout the U.S.

Above left: Eastern Air Transport pilot Fred Cann and Pan Am pilot C. D. Swinson shake hands as they inaugurate the newly coordinated Air Mail schedules of their respective airlines. Miami Herald, April 2, 1930.