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Title: The Most Luxurious Air Travel |
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Description: One of the main functions of Imperial Airways was to speed the connection between the British Isles and the Empire. In the early 30’s, Imperial was flying two separate routes to the colonies - one to India and the Far East, and another through the African continent to Cape Town, South Africa. Both of these routes left weekly from London, carrying passengers, mail, and freight. Imperial Airways’ advertising emphasized luxury, comfort and service because their flights were slower than the other airliners. Their main competition, for example, on the Far East route was KLM, the royal Dutch Airlines, which flew to the Dutch colony of Indonesia. KLM flew faster aircraft and had less stops to make along the route, while Imperial flew at a slower speed in order to carry more air freight, and had to stop in all of Britain’s mid-eastern colonies along the way to drop off mail, freight, and passengers. In 1934, it took 10 days to fly from London to Cape Town (it took 17 days by surface travel), and since radar had not been developed yet, the planes flew only during the daytime. Every night, passengers would sleep in a hotel supplied by the airline -- one night perhaps, as described in a company brochure, "in a modern room with iced drinking water at your elbow, while lions roar in the bush outside." There were 27 stops between London and Cape Town, so Imperial had to offer luxury and comfort, since otherwise they might not have gotten any passengers. The Short "Scylla" biplane, pictured on this poster, carried 39 passengers and from 1934 to 1940, was used for Imperial’s flights within Europe. Upon leaving the continent, passengers had to transfer to other planes. |
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