Southern Air Fast Express First Flight Douglas Arizona - Atlanta Georgia - 1930

Description

Christened by the Post Office Department as the Southern Transcontinental Route and honored with a complete set of distinctive cachets — a different type for each city — Contract Air Mail Route 33 assumed its place in air mail development as one of the three great U.S. transcontinental routes, giving the United States the finest air mail service in the world.
At its inauguration Contract Air Mail Route 33 was not equipped for night-flying. The Contract Air Mail Route 33 schedule also allowed for connections with Contract Air Mail Route 19 at Atlanta and Contract Air Mail Route 3 at Fort Worth.
Initial service along this 2,373-mile route was one daily trip each way.
This cover was carried on the October 15, 1930 inaugural Contract Air Mail Route 33 flight from Douglas, Arizona to Atlanta, Georgia and is listed in the Contract Air Mail Flights (CAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as 33E8.