Thursday, August 26, 2010

B.C. Airlines Courtesy Flight Cover

Letters were sometimes carried by pilots who had no contracts or authority for carrying the mail. These letters did not have the status of mail when carried by them but were carried through courtesy only and became mail only at a Canadian Post Office.
(Page 965, American Air Mail Catalogue, 1960, Vol. II)



B.C. Airlines was founded by Bill Sylvester of Vancouver. B.C. Airlines had bases in Vancouver, Ganges, Alert Bay, and Campbell River.


From Alliford Bay, Queen Charlotte Islands, this letter was carried courtesy of B.C. Air Lines. The letter entered the postal system at Vancouver and was cancelled on December 1, 1954.


The Republic "SeaBee" was one of the planes in the B.C. Air Lines fleet. Described by one pilot as looking like "a combination of an egg and a toothpick".