Southern Air Fast Express First Flight New Orleans LA - Nashville Tennessee 1931

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.
To unify existing services across Contract Air Mail Routes 2, 20 and 33, a triple hook-up went into effect on June 15, 1931, greatly clarifying and speeding up the handling of the mails.
This cover was carried on the inaugural Contract Air Mail Route 33 flight from New Orleans, Louisiana to Nashville, Tennessee (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Contract Air Mail Flights (CAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as 33N19.
In a series of mergers beginning June 30, 1931 Southern Air Fast Express and the contract for Contract Air Mail Route 33 ultimately was absorbed by The Aviation Corporation and operated under the name American Airlines.