Chalk's International Airlines

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Arthur “Pappy” Chalk began Miami’s Red Arrow Flying Service in 1917, initially working from the Royal Palm Hotel dock with float-equipped aircraft and an office setup that was, memorably, a table beneath a beach umbrella. Renamed Chalk’s Flying Service, it inaugurated scheduled Miami–Bimini service in 1919.

Chalk’s built a terminal at Watson Island in Biscayne Bay and made a business out of connecting South Florida with the Bahamas. During Prohibition, Bimini traffic included bootleggers and the agents pursuing them—an unusually spicy origin story for a passenger airline. Grumman amphibians later became the company’s signature equipment.

Resorts International acquired Chalk’s in 1974, then sold it to United Capital Corporation in 1991. A 1996 investor group operated it as Pan Am Air Bridge; after bankruptcy, James Confalone acquired the operation in 1999 and relaunched it as Chalk’s Ocean Airways. Security restrictions moved operations from Watson Island to Fort Lauderdale in 2001.

A fatal December 19, 2005 crash grounded the airline’s own flying-boat service. It returned to the Chalk’s International Airlines name in 2006, but federal action ended its operating authority in September 2007 and the company ceased operations later that year.

Our Chalk's International Airlines collection celebrates the sun-faded romance of Biscayne Bay departures, salt-air terminals, and the wonderfully impractical majesty of commuting by flying boat.