AIR MAILS IN FRANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 32

AIR MAILS IN FRANCE

12,000,000 A YEAR CARRIED

An interesting article in the “Journee Industrielle” describes the progress made by French aerial postage since the war, says the Paris correspondent of the “Morning Post.” The first air post instituted in 1919 connected London and Paris. The same year the first line linking France to its African colonies was opened between Toulouse and Casablanca. In 1921 a hydroplane mail service started between Antibes and Ajaccio, in Corsica. In 1927 important air communications were established between Algiers and Syria, via Athens. Today there is a wide network of lines connecting France with all the capitals of Europe, as well as Africa and South America and India, by Cairo and Bagdad and Karachi. Since 1921 the activity of the aitmails has steadily increased. In 192021 the number of letters thus carried was 509, 566; in 1923-24 it was 4,366,211; two years ago the figure rose to 12,546,368. Encouraged by these results, the aero postal company extended its lines to the chief cities of South America, including Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and even to Chile and Peru, which are now- within eight days’ flying from Paris.

It is predicted that when safe aerial communication is established between Europe and the United States of America, a letter will travel round the world in 20 days.