American Airlines First Flight Springfield Massachusetts - Albany New York 1933

Description

Effective February 12, 1933, Contract Air Mail Route 20 was extended from Albany to Boston, via Springfield, Massachusetts. The inaugural schedule called for two flights each way, but on account of snow and bad weather conditions, the morning flights were cancelled. The first and only trips to go through on the inaugural date were the evening trips.
All mail, whether for morning or evening flights, was dispatched by the first (evening) flights. Mail scheduled for the morning flights were so-cancelled and cacheted, but mail scheduled for evening flights, while properly cancelled, was not cacheted. All covers, whether cacheted or not but properly carried on the first flights, are legitimate first flight covers.
Covers intended for the evening flight are more scarce.
This cover,
intended for the evening flight - without the official cachet
, was carried on the
inaugural Contract Air Mail Route 20 flight from Springfield, Massachusetts to Albany, New York (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Contract Air Mail Flights (CAM) section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as 20W19.