The Impacts of Established CAM on Today’s Commercial Arline Route Structure

The established Contract Air Mail Routes (CAM) laid a foundation for today’s commercial airline route structure. The system was established to provide a regulated and reliable structure capable of accommodating all participating carriers in the U.S. The CAM system was the first significant step in the creation of the U.S private airline industry (Birth of Aviation, 2014). Under the Air Mail Act of 1925, which is commonly known as the Kelly Act, the government was able to transfer the airmail services to private companies using competitive bids (Birth of Aviation, 2014). Thus, CAM introduced a new phase in the aviation industry, in which individual operators and private enterprises would manage their developments. The CAM system facilitated the designation of routes to certain airlines, thus providing them with opportunities to participate in the movement of mails to various locations. Therefore, the CAM system allowed competition between airlines, which operated in different routes.

The CAM system provided a conducive ground for the birth of the new aviation industry. Some of the CAM service initial carriers through acquisitions and mergers have developed to become significant players in the airline industry. For instance, companies such as United Airlines, American Airlines, Trans World Airlines (TWA), Boeing, and Pan Am are key players in the airline industry, which were selected through the CAM system, which influences the airline route structure to date (Birth of Aviation, 2014). This system also played a significant role in the development of infrastructure and technology, which enabled the survival of passenger air travel and its prosperity to date. The scheduling effectiveness in the commercial cargo airline today can be traced from the awarding of CAM 6 and CAM 7 airmail routes to the Ford Air Transport Service (Birth of Aviation, 2014). Therefore, commercial airlines today learn the importance of mergers and acquisitions as an approach to becoming effective and successful by analyzing the case of Ford Air Transport service.

Reference

Birth of Aviation. (2014).  The Birth of Commercial Aviation . Birth of Aviation. Retrieved 9 May 2021, from http://www.birthofaviation.org/birth-of-commercial-aviation/.