Florida Airways was founded by Eddie Rickenbacker, Reed Chambers, and Virgil Chinea who later claimed "it was the worst investment he ever made".

[1] Several outside investors were brought in including Richard F Hoyt, Anne Morgan, Percy Rockefeller, and Henry Ford who bought 3 of his own Stout 2AT's for the venture.

Florida Airways started regularly scheduled passenger service on June 1, 1926 [3][4] The first service was from Tampa to Miami and Jacksonville[5] Florida Airways was a pioneer airline operating on the CAM (Commercial Air Mail) routes that subsidized early air commerce through airmail contracts.

On September 15, 1926 a Florida Airways mail flight on the Tampa - Jacksonville - Atlanta route becomes the first commercial flight to land at Candler Field (forerunner to Atlanta International Airport).

In order to increase revenue, wet letters or even bricks with stamps were mailed back and forth on the airline.