Round-the-World Flights

Earliest Commercial Airline Round-the-World Air Mail Cover

Page 2n (rev: 1000)

Cover	Close-up (Right)	Close-up (Left)	Rear (Right)	Rear (Left)

	On November 22, 1935 Pan American Airways began carrying mail across the Pacific
from San Francisco to Manila, Philippines with its newly acquired Martin M-130 flying boat. 
Pan American decided to expand this transpacific mail service to passenger carrying service on 
October 21, 1936.
	On April 21, 1937 Pan American Airways inaugurated new passenger/mail service across the 
Pacific from San Francisco to Hong Kong with an intermediate stop in the Portuguese colony of 
Macao.  This opened commercial connections with Imperial Airways and KLM for onward transit 
round-the-world.  Several seized this opportunity to post mail round-the-world.
	This air mail cover was the earliest to go round-the-world westerly via commercial 
airlines.

Itinerary:

April 19, 1937       US Air Mail       New York City, NY to San Francisco
April 21, 1937       Pan American      San Francisco to Hong Kong
April 28, 1937       KLM               Hong Kong to Penang, Malaya
May 6, 1937          KLM               Penang to Amsterdam, Netherlands
May 15, 1937         KLM               Amsterdam to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May 20, 1937         Pan American      Rio de Janeiro to New York City

William Van Dusen posted this air mail cover round-the-world. He was the 1st Pan American Public Relations Director. "Pan American Airways" was the airline that "served all the Americas."

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