On 25 August 1919, the world’s first daily international scheduled air service began between London and Paris. On that inaugural flight of Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd.(AT&T), besides a single passenger and newspapers, the cargo included perishable goods such as Devonshire cream, jam and grouse. This is widely cited as one of the earliest recorded instances where perishables were transported by air in commercial service.
That 1919 flight came just after the First World War as commercial aviation began developing regular services. While the first cargo-only air freight flight took place earlier on 7 November 1910, when a Wright Brothers-built Model B plane carried silk from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, those goods were not perishable as they were textiles.
The 1919 London–Paris flight is notable because perishables (cream, jam, game birds) were specifically mentioned among the cargo, highlighting early recognition of the value of air transport for time-sensitive goods.
Why 1919 mattered
With the First World War over in 1918, Europe had large numbers of military aircraft and trained pilots but no formal civilian air routes. Governments began lifting wartime bans on civil flights and aviation pioneers saw a chance to create regular international services between major cities.
Founded in October 1916 by industrialist George Holt Thomas as part of the Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco), AT&T was the first British airline and the first to operate a daily scheduled international commercial air service. It later became part of the lineage that led to Imperial Airways and eventually British Airways.
The day itself: 25 August 1919
On a dull, showery morning from the grassy sweep of Hounslow Heath – a quiet patch of west London destined one day to become the roaring sprawl of Heathrow – an improbable adventure lifted into the grey. The destination was Le Bourget, Paris’s newly minted gateway to the skies and the world’s first purpose-built international civil airfield. The aircraft itself was a repurposed survivor of war: a spindly De Havilland biplane, its fabric skin and wooden frame adapted from the Airco DH.4A and DH.16 designs, now pressed into the hopeful service of peace, commerce and curiosity.
This was no empty joyride. Alongside the solitary passenger – a keen-eyed Evening Standard reporter chronicling the novelty of the AT&T service – the aircraft carried a cargo as eccentric as it was ambitious. Bundles of mail and freshly printed newspapers shared space with jars of Devonshire cream, pots of jam, a brace or two of grouse and a consignment of leather bound for Parisian workshops. Fragile, perishable and deliciously time-sensitive, these goods quietly announced the birth of airfreight as a practical enterprise rather than a daring experiment.
The crossing took a brisk two and a half hours, a remarkable saving on the weary shuffle of train and ferry that had long tethered London to Paris. Navigation was little more than instinct and courage, forecasting a matter of educated guesswork. Yet through cloud and drizzle the machine pressed on, sketching a bold new line across the map of modern travel.
Why This Flight Is Historically Significant
Although other flights had crossed international boundaries earlier, 25 August 1919 is recognised as the first regularly scheduled daily international airline service – defined by repetition, passenger service and published schedules rather than one-off flights.
The aircraft used were adapted ex-military machines, converted to carry passengers and freight – an important step from wartime aviation to peacetime commercial airlines. The existence of customs facilities at Hounslow Heath also helped make an international air service practical.
Through a series of takeovers and mergers, the modern-day British Airways traces part of its legacy back to Aircraft Transport and Travel, its earliest corporate ancestor. BA celebrated 2019 as the centenary of its operational passenger flights.
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Author: James Graham
