Airmail is mail sent by aircraft. It is the fastest way to send packages and many other types of mail to distant places. Airliners carry the mail between large cities. Some cities offer helicopter service between central and suburban post offices. Nearly all first-class mail going more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) travels by air.
Early balloonists and pioneer airplane pilots sometimes carried airmail as stunts. Earle Ovington flew the first official airmail in the United States in 1911 between Garden City and Mineola, New York. The first continuous regular airmail service in the world started on May 15, 1918, with United States Army pilots flying between New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
On Aug. 12, 1918, the Post Office Department (now the United States Postal Service) began making contracts with private airlines to carry the mail. The first night airmail was flown from Omaha, Nebraska, to Chicago in 1921. Regular night airmail flights and regular transcontinental mail service began in 1924. The American Railway Express Company began shipping air express packages on airlines in 1927.
The cancellation of all airmail contracts in 1934 marked the beginning of airmail rate regulation. Rates were regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (now part of the Federal Aviation Administration). The regulation of airmail rates and service ended on Dec. 31, 1984. In 1985, the U.S. Postal Service returned to contracting with a variety of both passenger and freight airlines to transport mail.
