November 2007 13
On January 20, 1932—as previ-
ously scheduled—the first flight
of Imperial’s Cape Town service
departed London. It reached Cape
Town on February 2
nd
. Mean-
while, a second plane departed
Cape Town bound for London on
January 27
th
and arrived in En-
gland on February 16
th
.
As one would expect, the highest
volume of mail carried by Impe-
rial Airways originated in the larg-
est urban centers and was flown
to destinations in other large ur-
ban centers. Newall (1996) pub-
lishes two charts prepared by F. J.
Field Ltd. that show the relative
scarcity of covers carried from
points of origin to specific desti-
nations on the London to Cape
Town Christmas flight and the
first round trip Imperial flight in
Map 18 Imperial’s route south from Kenya to South Africa traveled through
Jan/Feb 1932. The charts do not
Tanganyika, North and South Rhodesia on the way to Cape Town. A weekly
feeder service was operated between Kimberley and Southwest Africa.
show specific quantities of mail,
but use a system of comparative
The flights were well publicized and by the end of
values to indicate the relative scarcity of covers. For
November the British post Office had accumulated
example, on the Jan/Feb flight from South Africa,
over 60,000 items of mail to be sent by air to South
covers originating in Cape Town with destinations in
Africa. In a master stroke of publicity the Post Office
London are rated “10”. The same number applies to
announced that there would be a special Christmas
covers destined for Ireland and Northern Europe. Cape
Flight to Cape Town on December 9, 1931. Figure 62
Town mail to Cairo and Nairobi is rated “14”, but
illustrates a cover carried on this special flight posted
mail destined for Southern Europe is rated “50” and
in London on December 8
th
and arriving in
mail addressed to India is rated “120”.
3
Johannesburg on December 21
st
. There was no return
Christmas Flight.
Granted the subject matter for these tables relates spe-
cifically to first flight covers—many of which would
likely have been generated
Figure 62 This cover
by collectors—but the
was carried on the
overall pattern suggested
special Christmas
flight fr
by the scarcity numbers ar-
om London to
gues in favour of common
Johannesburg in
December 1931.
sense, i.e., mail originating
in small out the way places
or destined for lightly
populated localities made
up only a small proportion
of the total flow. It seems
reasonable to assume that
such a relationship applies
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