Air mail routes to and from Finland 1935
Air mail to and from Finland during the year 1935 used either the Turku airport or the Helsinki airport. Air mail was also delivered via Mariehamn airport of the Åland Isles to Stockholm. Airports only supported seaplanes and due to weather conditions, they were unable to operate around the year. Listed here are possible air mail routes by month. The information is sourced from online archives of the Postal Museum of Finland. The archives are in Finnish and Swedish only. The new Turku airfield was inaugurated in September of 1935 being the world's northernmost civilian air field at the time. However, mail flights with seaplanes to and from Stockholm still used the old airport built in 1924 until both Helsinki and Stockholm had built land-bound air fields.
January
No air mail routes.
February
No air mail routes.
March
No air mail routes.
April
Air mail route between Tallinn (Estonia) - Helsinki - Turku - Stockholm (Sweden) started operating 15.4. Route continued until 15.10.
May
Air mail was connected to night air mail connections (connections from Stockholm to many European target cities). This connection started in 1.5. and lasted until 4.10. Please note that during this period the flight operators would accept regular letters and postcards that did not have the air mail surcharge paid but only if there was enough room in the plane to add them. This means that during this period regular mail might have been transported as air mail but then again they might not. The postcards or covers that claim to have been transported by air should have some indication present on them to support the claim. Having an air mail surcharge paid but without "Par Avion" indication could support such a case. Also, paying the air mail surcharge guaranteed that the postcard or letter was transported via air.
June
Air mail route between Mariehamn and Stockholm started operating in 20.6. Operation continued until 20.8.
July
Air mail as per April, May and June.
August
Air mail as per April, May and June. After 20.8. air mail between Mariehamn and Stockholm stopped.
September
Air mail as per April and May.
October
As the air mail route Tallinn - Helsinki - Turku - Stockholm stopped in 15.10., a shorter route Helsinki - Turku -Stockholm was operational between 16.10. and 15.11. The connections to night air mail flights were severed in 4.10. Note that air mail to and from Estonia was only possible via the connection to Tallinn. However, a separate route between Helsinki and Tallinn was operated between 16.10 and 20.11. The connection was supposed to have continued until the end of the year but was cancelled and ended in 20.11. There is a separate note in the archives (KK/1935/158) but no mention why the route was disconnected. Most probably weather conditions. Also, the Helsinki - Tallinn route was not flown on Sundays whereas the connection to Stockholm was.
November
The only operational air mail routes were between Stockholm and Helsinki starting in 16.11. and between Helsinki and Tallinn that ceased in the 20th of November as explained above. The Stockholm - Helsinki route ceased in 31.12.
December
Only operational route was between Helsinki and Stockholm. Note that all air mail route operations ceased in 31.12.
