An airline is a company that provides scheduled or charter air transport for passengers and cargo, often carrying freight in the belly of passenger planes while dedicated cargo airlines focus solely on shipments. Ownership of these carriers has dramatically shifted over time—from private control before the 1930s to government ownership from the 1940s through the 1980s, and then back to large-scale privatization since the mid-1980s, which also sparked major mergers and the rise of global alliances like Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and Oneworld that coordinate codesharing and frequent-flyer programs. The world's first commercial passenger airline was DELAG, founded in 1909 and operating Zeppelin airships from 1910, while Compagnie générale transaérienne (CGT), also founded in 1909, holds the title of oldest airline company and later merged into what became Air France. In the United States, the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line launched the first fixed-wing scheduled service in January 1914, piloted by Tony Jannus. Across Europe, Aircraft Transport and Travel (AT&T)—an early predecessor of British Airways—pioneered the world's first daily international service between London and Paris in August 1919, flying from Hounslow Heath to Le Bourget. That same year, competitors like Handley Page Transport began offering London–Paris passenger flights, while French carriers such as Société des lignes Latécoère and the Farman brothers' Société Générale des Transports Aériens (which started the first international service between Paris and Brussels in March 1919) helped establish the European aviation network that would eventually consolidate into Air France.