Southern Airways, a domestic regional airline serving the U.S. Southeast under Air Mail Route No. 98 (domestic), was given a 6-month temporary exemption to serve the Cayman Islands from Miami, and launched its first overseas service on that date. Such an exemption order which avoided a lengthy hearing procedure, did not grant a formal certificate and, pending completion of such procedure, no Route Number was assigned the new service aside from the temporary U.S. Postal Service designation “098.” However, this designation was continued even after the formal certificate was issued in June 1976 assigning Route No. 174 to this operation.
The Caymans are located 500 miles due south of Miami, with western Cuba sandwiched in between.
This cover was carried on the December 4, 1974 inaugural Foreign Air Mail Route 98 flight from the Miami, Florida Airport Mail Facility to Georgetown, Cayman Islands (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Foreign Air Mail (FAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as F98-1F.
The Miami Airport Mail Facility Operations Manager autographed the cover.
Republic Airlines, Inc., was formed on July 1, 1979, as a result of the merger of the Atlanta-based Southern Airlines with North Central Airlines based in Minneapolis.
The two regional airlines signed their agreement in September 1978. The Civil Aeronautics Board approved the merger on May 16, 1979, and President Carter upheld this action on June 4.
Effective October 1, 1980, Republic purchased Hughes Airwest, a regional airline based in San Francisco.
On January 23, 1986, Northwest Airlines announced an $884 million purchase of Republic Airlines, which was the biggest merger in U.S. civil aviation history to date. The two carriers filed a merger application with the Department of Transportation on January 27. The Justice Department opposed the merger because it would “substantially lessen competition” in violation of antitrust laws. Full hearings regarding the merger were held and on July 31 the Department of Transportation approved Northwest Airlines’ takeover of Republic Airlines. On August 12 the acquisition of Republic was completed as officials from both airlines transferred ownership of Republic to Northwest. On October 1, 1986, the operations of Republic were fully integrated with a single Northwest flight schedule.
Delta Air Lines acquired rival Northwest Airlines Inc during 2008 in a $2.6 billion merger that created the world’s biggest airline.