The Aero Espresso Italiana, [1] called also AEI and Aeroespresso del Levante, was the first airline of the Kingdom of Italy. It was created as a private company for the route Brindisi-Athens-Istanbul; later a second route to Rodhes was added [2]
The airline company, founded in Rome in December 1923, was operating with flights only from 1926. It was based in Rome and worked, as was customary in the period, with services of passenger transport and international air mail in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Like many other European nations did in their early phases of civil aviation, Italy initially formed several small companies that struggled to provide a modest level of passenger service. The first of these was the Aero Expresso Italiana (AEI), founded on December 12, 1923, which began offering services in August 1926. [3]
In the early 1930s Aero Espresso Italiana had two flights toward eastern Europe: [4]
The AEI used mainly the flying boats Savoia 55, but also the Macchi 24bis and Dornier. [6]
The AEI remained active until its absorption, in 1934, by the national airline Ala Littoria (that was formed by a merger of Società Aerea Mediterranea (SAM), Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea (SANA), Società Italiana Servizi Aerei (SISA) and Aero Espresso Italiana).
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1934:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1926:
Asmara International Airport is the international airport of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. It is the country's largest airport and the only one receiving regularly scheduled services as of 2017.
Ala Littoria S.A. was the Italian national airline that operated during the fascist regime in the 1930s and 1940s.
Abruzzo Airport is an international airport serving Pescara, Italy. It is located approximately 4 km from the centre of Pescara, about 180 km from Rome, a 2-hour drive by car on a motorway across the Apennine mountains. The airport is located on the state road 5 Via Tiburtina Valeria and is well connected to important roads and railway connections.
Aden Adde International Airport, formerly known as Mogadishu International Airport, is an international airport serving Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. It is named after Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, the first President of Somalia.
Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A., usually shortened to Iberia, is the largest airline of Spain, based in Madrid.
The Breda Ba.44 was a biplane airliner developed in Italy in the mid-1930s and which saw limited military service when impressed into the Regia Aeronautica as transports.
The Dornier Do R Superwal was a German flying boat airliner of the 1920s.
Aero Trasporti Italiani S.p.A (ATI) was an Italian airline headquartered in Naples, Italy. It was founded on 16 December 1963 as a subsidiary of Alitalia to take over secondary domestic routes in southern Italy operated by another Alitalia subsidiary Società Aerea Mediterranea.
The Macchi M.C.94 was a 1930s Italian commercial flying boat built by Macchi.
Castel Benito was an airport of Tripoli created by the Italians in Italian Libya. Originally, it was a small military airport, but it was enlarged in the late 1930s and was later used by the British RAF after 1943. It was called RAF Castel Benito by the Allies.
Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea was an Italian airline established 1925 in Genoa, concentrating on flying boat routes in the western Mediterranean area.
Società Aerea Mediterranea (SAM) was an Italian cargo and passenger airline based in Rome, Italy, which operated between 1928 and 1939 as subsidiary of Ala Littoria and between 1959 and 1981 as subsidiary of Alitalia. It was founded on 26 March 1928 as a government initiative of the Secretary of State for Air Italo Balbo with the aim to take the control of all private airline and rationalize all domestic and international routes.
Castel Benito was an airport of Tripoli created by the Italians in Italian Libya in the early 1930s. It was called RAF Castel Benito by the Allies after 1943.
Alessandro Guidoni served as a general in the Regia Aeronautica. Guidonia Montecelio, the small town and comune where he died while testing a new parachute, was named after him in 1937.
Umberto Klinger was an aviator, Italian politician and entrepreneur.
The Imperial Line was a flight route of the Italian national airline Ala Littoria between 1935 and 1941 during the Fascist era. It was the longest route in the Italian colonial empire in Africa and "the jewel in Ala Littoria's crown". It connected Rome with Benghazi (Libya), Asmara (Eritrea), Addis Abeba (Ethiopia) and Mogadishu (Somalia). It carried passengers and mail. Italy ultimately lost control of the route during World War II.
The Petrella Airport was the first international airport in Italian Somalia. It was opened in 1928 -just 3 miles south of Mogadishu- with the name "Enrico Petrella" in honor of an Italian pilot who died a few years before in the same airport of Italian Mogadiscio. In 1941 the airport was partially destroyed during WW2 and remained inactive for some years as a civilian airport: only military airplanes used it. In 1950 was reopened as a civilian airport by the Italian authorities of the ONU Fiduciary Mandate.