The world's first passenger airline DELAG ( Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft or the German Air Transport Company , note ed.) was established on November 16, 1909 as a branch of the Zeppelin Company.
The company provided passenger air services until 1935, when its operations were taken over by the newly formed Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei.
While many of the first flights were sightseeing tours, the DELAG Bodensee airship began regular flights between Berlin and southern Germany in 1919. The flight from Berlin to Friedrichshafen takes 4 to 9 hours, compared to 18-24 hours by train. Bodensee makes 103 flights and carries almost 2,500 passengers, 4,990 kg of mail and 2,990 kg of cargo.
DELAG acquired a second aerostat from the Zeppelin Company in 1920; The LZ-121 Nordstern was intended to provide international passenger services between Friedrichshafen, Berlin and Stockholm, but had not yet entered service when DELAG was forced to cease operations, pressured by the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission established under the Treaty of Versailles. The two DELAG airships were transferred to the Allies as war reparations: the LZ-120 Bodensee was given to Italy and the LZ-121 Nordstern to France.
DELAG offered the world's first transatlantic passenger service using the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin to operate regular flights between Germany and South America in early 1931. The Graf Zeppelin crossed the South Atlantic 136 times before being decommissioned after the crash of “Hindenburg“ in 1937
Source: investor.bg