The first official air mail delivery in the United States took place on August 17, 1859, when John Wise piloted a balloon starting in Lafayette, Indiana, with a destination of New York. ĭuring the first aerial flight in North America by balloon on January 9, 1793, from Philadelphia to Deptford, New Jersey, Jean-Pierre Blanchard carried a personal letter from George Washington to be delivered to the owner of whatever property Blanchard happened to land on, making the flight the first delivery of air mail in the United States. The letter was written by an American Loyalist William Franklin to his son William Temple Franklin who was serving in a diplomatic role in Paris with his grandfather Benjamin Franklin. It was flown by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries. Specific instances of a letter being delivered by air long predate the introduction of Airmail as a regularly scheduled service available to the general public.Īlthough homing pigeons had long been used to send messages (an activity known as pigeon mail), the first mail to be carried by an air vehicle was on January 7, 1785, on a hot air balloon flight from Dover to France near Calais. Such "air-speeded" mail is different from nominal airmail in its branding, price, and priority of service. Thus even "regular" mail may make part of its journey on an aircraft. Today it is often the case that mail service is categorized and sold according to transit time alone, with mode of transport (land, sea, air) being decided on the back end in dynamic intermodal combinations. Since the official language of the Universal Postal Union is French, airmail items worldwide are often marked Par avion, literally: "by airplane".įor about the first half century of its existence, transportation of mail via aircraft was usually categorized and sold as a separate service (airmail) from surface mail. The Universal Postal Union adopted comprehensive rules for airmail at its 1929 Postal Union Congress in London. Airmail may be the only option for sending mail to some destinations, such as overseas, if the mail cannot wait the time it would take to arrive by ship, sometimes weeks. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. With the letterbox packet, you can send small goods (up to 2 kg) in an affordable way and still be compliant with the new regulations.A cover carried on a 1932 first flight in the north woods of Canada, with a cachet and franked with both a regular and an airmail stampĪirmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. This can be relatively expensive though! This is why we introduced the letterbox packet. Until recently the better option to send these goods was to use the option "packet without track & trace". You can find more information while buying your shipping label.ĭue to new international regulations, it is no longer allowed to send smaller goods (up to 2 kg) via mail in an envelope. *These prices apply for most of the European countries. Hand over your parcel at one of the 2,600 post officesĬhoose the shipping option that suits you best.No printer? We can print your shipping label and the required customs forms for you. Then you can just hand it over at a PostNL point. Have you filled out all the information? Then the customs form is automatically added to your shipping label. If you prepare your order online, the information that is required by customs is automatically displayed. For an International Parcel use a CN23 form. Be sure to provide the required documentation For international deliveries outside the EU, you are required to fill out a customs form.Please note that you cannot use regular stamps to frank your parcel. These are available at your local post office. Please refer to address specifications per country.įrank your parcel using our special parcel stamps. Make sure that your parcel is addressed correctly.Make sure your parcel meets the size and weight requirements:.