Florida Airways was a brief-lived United States local service carrier, also known as a feeder airline.
On March 28, 1946, the US Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now defunct federal agency that, at that time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transportation, certificated Thomas E. Gordon, dba Orlando Airlines to provide air service from Orlando, Florida to points in central and north Florida for a three-year period.
At the time, there were seven CAB-certificated local service airlines in operation, and the CAB said Florida Airways was by far the least economic of these carriers, based on failure to generate sufficient revenue.
Florida Airways average flight length was only 46 miles, making it particularly susceptible to competition from ground transportation.
[5][6] The CAB had previously rejected, in September 1948, an earlier attempt by Florida Airways to extend its certificate, so the airline knew its end was likely.