A major step in providing an airmail service between
New Zealand and the UK was the weekly Imperial Airways
London to Karachi service which started on 30 March 1929.
The journey took 7 days.
The first flight
This cover was carried on the first flight from Croydon Airport, London to Karachi and then on to Calcutta by surface mail.
The cover is postmarked 28 March 1929 and was flown from London on Saturday 30 March arriving in Karachi on the following Saturday, April 6. It was backstamped on arrival in Calcutta on April 9.
The postage rate was 6d per ½ oz plus surface (empire) postage of
1½d per oz.
The cover has the postage for 1 oz, i.e. 1/1½.
The route
The flight from London was via Paris to Basle on March 30 by the AW Argosy, City of Glasgow and then by overnight train to Genoa. The flight from Genoa to Alexandria from March 31 to April 3 was by the Short Calcutta flying boat City of Athens. The route was:
- March 31: Genoa - Rome - Naples;
- April 1: Naples - Corfu - Athens;
- April 2: Athens - Suda Bay (Crete) - Tobruk;
- April 3: Tobruk - Alexandria
The route from Alexandria to Karachi followed the existing route to Basra and was then via Persia.
The DH 66 Hercules, City of Jerusalem, flew from Alexandria to Gaza on 3 April and then to Baghdad on 4 April. It was scheduled to fly on to Basra on 4 April and left Baghdad, but was forced to return due to a sandstorm [3]. On 5 April, it flew via Basra, Bushire and Lingeh to Jask and then on 6 April via Gwadar to Karachi.
Intermediate Flights
a) London - Baghdad
This cover was flown from London to Baghdad arriving on 4 April although it was not backstamped until 5 April.
The postage rate to Iraq was 4½d per ½ oz airmail
plus 2½d surface (foreign) postage
and so the cover is correctly rated at 7d.
b) London - Tehran
The next cover was also flown to Baghdad although in this case it was backstamped on 4 April. However, it is addressed to Tehran.
There is a Tehran backstamp on 9 April and a Tehran postmark
on the front (also 9 April) which was applied when it
began its return journey to the UK by surface mail.
c) Athens - Cairo
This cover was postmarked in Athens on 1 April 1929.
It was flown from Athens to Tobruk on 2 April and on to Alexandria on 3 April. It was backstamped on 3 April at both Alexandria and Cairo.
The journey from Alexandria to Cairo was by rail.
To Destinations beyond India
Although destinations beyond India were not announced for the first flight, and official first acceptances came later, covers to countries such as Australia, Malay and New Zealand were accepted.
a) To New Zealand
A few letters for New Zealand were carried on the first flight, but are very rare. In fact, this is the only cover that has been reported.
This registered cover to New Zealand is rated at 9½d as the surface rate for printed matter was only ½d. (The registration fee was 3d.)
The first official acceptance of mail for New Zealand
by this service was in August 1929.
The first acceptance of
mail from New Zealand was
in July 1930.
b) To Malaya
The next cover is addressed to Malacca in Malaya. It was postmarked in the UK on 28 March and is backstamped in Karachi on 6 April. A manuscript on the back states that it arrived in Malacca on 17 April.
The rate was 6d airmail plus 1½d empire surface rate.
First Return Flight
This cover was postmarked in Karachi on 6 April and flown on the first return flight which left Karachi on 7 April, 1929 on the DH 66, City of Baghdad. It flew to Jask and was then flown Jask - Baghdad on 8 April before flying Baghdad - Gaza - Cairo on 9 April although Cairo was not on the official schedule [3].
It was then flown Cairo - Alexandria on 10 April,
but was not flown Alexandria - Athens until 11 April.
It was scheduled to fly Athens - Naples on 12 April,
and Naples - Genoa on 13 April before going by night train
to Basle arriving early in the morning of 14 April.
It was then flown Basle - Paris - London on 14 April.
Intermediate acceptances and destinations
from Djask
This cover joined the first return flight at Jask, in Persia (Iran) and is postmarked Djask (i.e. Jask) on 7 April from where it was flown on 8 April.
On arrival in Liverpool, it was redirected presumably in order
to get the Liverpool postmark of 15 April.
That ties in with a London arrival of 14 April.
Later Outward Flights
Although covers to and from intermediate destinations as well as covers to Australia and New Zealand were carried on the first flight, the first official acceptances were some time later. For example, mail from London to Greece was accepted from 1 June and mail from Italy on 11 July 1929 [1].
a) Letter to British Officer in India, IE8
Although a large number of the letters sent on the first flight were philatelic in nature, the British Government felt that the service was of stragic importance and that improving communications to India was important in strengthening the Empire.
This included improving communications between British soldiers based in India and their families back home.
This is such a cover, sent to an officer based with
his regiment in Rawalpindi.
It is postmarked 17 May and was flown on the
8th outward flight IE8 leaving Croydon
on 18 May and arriving in Karachi on 25 May [3].
It is backstamped at Rawalpindi on 27 May.
b) First acceptance for Jask
This cover to Jask is inscribed First dispatch London / Jask and is postmarked 24 May 1929 in Liverpool.
It was flown on the 9th eastward flight numbered IE9 and left London on 25 May arriving in Jask on 31 May [2]. It is backstamped Djask on 1 June.
The franking is 8½d which is made up of 2½d
surface rate to a foreign country plus 6d air fee
to the Persian Gulf [1].
c) Switzerland - Karachi, IE12
As the first part of the route was London - Basle by plane followed by Basle - Genoa by train, it was straightforward for mail to be accepted from Switzerland.
This cover is postmarked on 13 June in Geneva from where it
would go to Basle by train and join IE12
on 15 June.
The flight arrived in Karachi on 22 June, but was 5 hours late [3]
and so the cover was not backstamped until the following day.
Later Return Flights
a) Two letters Bombay to Scotland
The first is postmarked in Bombay on 18 April 1929 and is addressed to North Berwick. It is therefore likely to have been flown on the third service which left Karachi on 21 April and arrived in London on 28 April.
It is franked with stamps to the value of 8 annas. The air mail fee from India was 6 annas and so presumably there was a surface fee of 2 annas.
It was the DH 66 City of Baghdad that departed with the mail from Karachi,
but it was the DH 66 City of Teheran that arrived in
Cairo, two days late [3].
There was clearly some problem along the way.
The second is also from Bombay and is to the same person. It is postmarked on 15 August 1929 and is addressed to Edinburgh.
It is therefore likely to have been flown on
service IW20 which left Karachi on 18 August and arrived in London
on 25 April.
Acceptance from Malaya, August 1929
According to Wingent [3], the first acceptance of mail from Malaya was sent on 29/30 August by sea to Calcutta and then by train to Karachi.
However, this cover from Malaya to the UK with Karachi - London routing is postmarked on 31 July in Kuala Lumpur and on 1 August in Penang. I have seen other similar covers in auctions including one with a 19 August backstamp in the UK.
That suggests that this was the first acceptance and that the covers
were flown from Karachi to London on IW19 on 11 - 18 August.
Bombay - Paris, October 1929
This cover was postmarked in Bombay on 5 October and backstamped in Karachi on 7 October.
Service IW27 left Karachi on 6 October and so this cover would have been flown on IW28 which left on 13 October [3]. As it is addressed to Paris, it was presumably off-loaded there on 20 October as the final leg was Basle - Paris - London.
During the following service IW29, the Short Calcutta flying boat City of Rome was forced to land on the sea in a storm after taking off from Naples. She sank, killing the crew of 3 and the 4 pasengers. All the mail was lost.
On the next service IW30, the mail was carried by sea from Alexandria
to Genoa due to the lack of flying boats.
The above cover was therefore carried on the last westward service in
which the mail was flown between Egypt and Genoa before the change
of route to one through central Europe.
Change to route
The route from London to Egypt changed several times in the
first few years due to problems between the British and Italian
governments.
The flights from Croydon on 13 and 20 April did not land
at Tobruk [3] and then in October some flights
landed at Mersa Matruh (Egypt) instead of Tobruk which was under
Italian control.
In November, a further change was made so that the
route
was now through central Europe.
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All scans were made by the author.
Information on this page is taken from:
Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2 (1986) compiled by
Douglas A Walker, and
The New Zealand Airmail Catalogue, (2nd Edition, 1994)
by James Stapleton.
Both are published by the
Air Mail Society of New Zealand
[1] A S Newell, British External Airmails until 1934,
(second edition) 1996.
[2] E B Proud, The Postal History of British Air Mails,
Proud-Bailey, 1991.
[3] Aircraft Movements on Imperial Airways' Eastern Route,
Vol 1, 1927 - 1937, Peter Wingent, Winchester 1999.