Perim Island
Air Mail Service to Perim and Kamaran 1928-1939
Aircraft from the RAF’s reformed 8 Squadron visited Perim from Aden on at least four occasions in 1927. There is no record of mails having been carried, although this is likely.
From 1928 the RAF made regular training flights to Perim and Kamaran and to supplement an increasingly infrequent and irregular steamer service and calls by the Government vessel on the Aden Station, the RAF agreed to carry mail at normal postal rates. For two months towards the end of that year this became a scheduled weekly Air Mail service but from 3 December this became a fortnightly service.
The Air Mail service to Perim must have been halted for a brief period as on 18 February 1929 the Commanding Officer of 8 Squadron RAF reported to the Residency that he had resumed the fortnightly mail service between Aden,
Between 1929 and the closing down of the Perim Coal Company in 1936 mails were carried fairly regularly in alternate weeks by steamer and the RAF, although the latter were not authorised to carry registered or insured articles. During year of the Abyssinian Crisis (1935-36) the reinforcement squadrons sent to Aden, including 203 (FB) Sqn, took their turn on the mail run.
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It is clear that following the closing of the sub-post office on Perim on 1 October 1936 the mail flight ceased calling at Perim for a short period and individuals there had to make their own arrangements to have letters forwarded. This was clearly not satisfactory and it was decided that the Air Mail for Kamaran would stop at Perim and hand the bag over to the Armed Police Inspector, picking the bag up from him on the return journey. This practice continued on a fairly regular basis until 1939.
It was quite normal for a flight of three aircraft to carry out the mail run, this only not being undertaken when aircraft were otherwise engaged in operational sorties over the hinterland. The normal practice was for planes to fly to Kamaran via Perim one day, returning via Perim the following day.