AIR MAILS

Wairarapa Age, 22 March 1929, Page 2

AIR MAILS

DEVELOPMENT OF TRAFFIC IN BRITAIN. BIG INCREASE OVER 1927. SPEEDY SERVICES. United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, March 20. The Postmaster-General, Sir W. Mitchell Thompson, communicates information regarding British air mail, traffic in 1928. He says that the use of air mail continues to grow and during the year nearly 37,000 pounds of letter mails were despatched from this country, representing an increase of 36 per cent, over the traffic of 1927. A considerable part of this increase was, as in previous years, carried by the CairoBasra air service. Traffic on most of the lines to the Continent also showed a steady and substantial increase, though France and Germany still took the bulk of it. Correspondence sent to Germany was 56 per cent, greater than in 1927, while traffic to Scandinavia increased by 30' per cent, and to France by 10 per cent. Correspondence sent by air to Marseilles on Friday mornings to overtake the Indian mail despatched from London on the previous evening was about four times the amount sent by this service in 1927. In addition the Mar-seilles-London air service was used io enable passengers’ letters posted on board the homeward bound Peninsular and Oirental liners to be delivered in this country in advance of the ordinary mails.

Several new services were introduced during the year, and Great Britain now has air mail connections either by direct aeroplane or by combined air and land routes with practically all European countries. Perhaps the most noteworthy new service is that to Brazil and Argentine, which is an extension of the service that has existed for some time past from Toulouse to Dakar in West Africa. This service is being maintained with regularity and offers a very substantial gain over the ordinary routes to South America. In parcel services there was a substantial increase all round in 1928. A total weight sent by air exceeded the 100,000 pounds mark for the first time since parcels were accepted, and nearly doubled itself in two years.— (British Official Wireless.)