web-catalog        FAM Foreign Air Mail First Flights F31

Aerodacious (Aviation + Audacious = Aerodacious) eMail: Aerodacious Page FAM031 (Revised 12/13/2007)

Background: The Post Office Department designated any contract air mail route flown by an airline into/from a foreign country into/from the US as a "Foreign Air Mail" route. The Foreign Air Mail routes became known as FAM's.

FAM-31: FAM-31 was awarded to Chicago and Southern Air Lines.
        Pacific Seaboard Air Lines was organized on June 15, 1933. Flying Bellanca CH-300's PSAL carried passengers on the West Coast from Los Angeles (Grand Central Air Terminal at Glendale) to San Francisco (Mills Field). After the February 1934 cancellation and reinstatement of new commercial air mail carrying contracts over re-designed revised Post Office routes in late June 1934, PSAL began flying "The Valley Level Route" between Chicago IL and New Orleans LA. Appropriately, PSAL changed its name to Chicago & Southern Air Lines in 1935.
        FAM-31 was awarded to Chicago & Southern Air Lines and on November 1, 1946 flying a Douglas DC-4 piloted by MT Benedict, it inaugurated flight service from New Orleans LA to Havana Cuba.

F31-1	461101	New Orleans LA-Havana Cuba	CSAL	MT Benedict	$4.50
F31-2	461101	Havana Cuba-New Orleans LA	CSAL	MT Benedict	$7.50

F31-5a	480731	Houston TX-Havana Cuba	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$7.50
F31-5fa	480731	Houston TX-Havana Cuba	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$11.25
F31-5b	480731	Houston TX-Kingston Jamaica	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$11.25
F31-5fb	480731	Houston TX-Kingston Jamaica	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$18.00
F31-5	480731	Houston TX-Caracas Venezuela	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$4.50
F31-5f	480731	Houston TX-Caracas Venezuela	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$12.00
F31-7a	480731	Havana Cuba-Kingston Jamaica	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$18.75
F31-7	480731	Havana Cuba-Caracas Venezuela	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$18.75
F31-6	480801	Havana Cuba-Houston TX	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$7.50
F31-8a	480817	New Orleans LA-Kingston Jamaica	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$15.00
F31-8fa	480817	New Orleans LA-Kingston Jamaica	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$30.00
F31-8	480817	New Orleans LA-Caracas Venezuela	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$15.00
F31-8f	480817	New Orleans LA-Caracas Venezuela	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$30.00

Lockheed Constellation

F31-10a	530110	New Orleans LA-Port-au-Prince Haiti	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$15.00
F31-10fa	530110	New Orleans LA-Port-au-Prince Haiti	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$11.25
F31-10b	530110	New Orleans LA-Ciudad Trujillo Dominican Republic	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$15.00
F31-10fb	530110	New Orleans LA-Ciudad Trujillo Dominican Republic	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$11.25
F31-10	530110	New Orleans LA-San Juan Puerto Rico	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$45.00
F31-10f	530110	New Orleans LA-San Juan Puerto Rico	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$11.25
F31-11a	530110	Port-au-Prince Haiti-Ciudad Trujillo Dominican Republic	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$30.00
F31-11	530110	Port-au-Prince Haiti-San Juan Puerto Rico	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$30.00
F31-12	530110	Ciudad Trujillo Dominican Republic-San Juan Puerto Rico	CSAL	Benjamin Catlin	$33.75
F31-13a	530111	San Juan Puerto Rico-Ciudad Trujillo Dominican Republic	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$135.00
F31-13b	530111	San Juan Puerto Rico-Port-au-Prince Haiti	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$135.00
F31-13	530111	San Juan Puerto Rico-New Orleans LA	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$26.00
F31-14a	530111	Ciudad Trujillo Dominican Republic-Port-au-Prince Haiti	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$30.00
F31-14	530111	Ciudad Trujillo Dominican Republic-New Orleans LA	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$15.00
F31-15	530111	Port-au-Prince Haiti-New Orleans LA	CSAL	Charles Quinn	$15.00

        Chicago & Southern Air Lines was acqiured by Delta Airlines on May 1, 1953.

Douglas DC-7

F31-20	610201	New Orleans LA-Aruba	DA	R Davidson	$3.75
F31-20f	610201	New Orleans LA-Aruba	DA	R Davidson	$3.00
F31-21	610201	Aruba-New Orleans LA	DA	R Davidson	$7.50

Convair 880

F31-25

640428

Kingston Jamaica-San Juan Puerto Rico

DA

R Davidson

$45.00

Douglas DC-9

F31-30	721030	New Orleans LA-Maracaibo Venezuela	DA		$21.00
F31-30f	721030	New Orleans LA-Maracaibo Venezuela	DA		$15.00

Lockheed Tristar

F31-35	780430	New Orleans LA-London England	DA	Glen Darnell & William Gilmer	$3.00
F31-35f	780430	New Orleans LA-London England	DA	Glen Darnell & William Gilmer	$3.75
F31-36	780430	Atlanta GA-London England	DA	Elmer Bennett & Ron Rice	$3.00
F31-36f	780430	Atlanta GA-London England	DA	Elmer Bennett & Ron Rice	$3.00

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