Regular air service to Amarillo began on May 29, 1929, at Old Municipal Airport, 4 miles west of here, when Western Air Express started round-trip flights from Los Angeles to Amarillo using a 12-passenger Fokker trimotor plane. This first segment of transcontinental air service reflected the efforts of the city and its leaders to build the airport and secure air service. On July 7, 1929, Transcontinental Air Transport launched the first continuous, regularly scheduled air passenger and mail service from the Atlantic to the Pacific on a route surveyed by Charles Lindbergh soon after his 1927 world-record solo flight from New York to Paris. Lindbergh, his wife, and other celebrities were honored guests of Amarillo on that first transcontinental commercial flight. Reorganizations of the companies that originally flew commercial schedules to Amarillo led to the formation of Trans-World Airlines, which holds the record for the longest service to the area. English Field, opened by Harold English in 1929, began handling commercial air traffic in 1930, was renamed Amarillo Air Terminal in 1952, and now handles the flights of six major airlines.