Return Flight Covers

The Return flight left London on the morning of 12 June, landing in Bombay on 13 June after halting at Geneva and Cairo. Return mail on this flight is not very common, and only a limited number are thought to exist. Each of the three points of origin have an interesting story, which I will recount in this page. Additionally, no mail originating from any other location has been seen.
Return Mail from London
Officially, no mail was permitted to be carried on the return flight, and there are estimates from various experts that somehow between 25-50 letters made it on the flight. My own guess is that the number was a little larger, maybe 100-200 covers. Most of these covers were prepared by Jal Cooper.   
Air-India International
First return Flight from London to Bombay
12 June 1948.
Rare Air-India International Souvenir cover printed for the return flight London - Bombay. Franked with KG VI 1 shilling value and cancelled and post marked LONDON S.W.I., D, 6.15 PM, 10 JNE, 1948. Boxed rectangular arrival mark on the reverse BOMBAY-25, 14 JUN 1948. Cover addressed to M.M.D'Souza, Radio Officer, Air-India Limited, Bombay Airport.
Very rare cover, and only a handful are known to exist.
Above: Air-India International souvenir cover with the words London - Bombay Inaugural Flight printed on it. Generally when one sees such a printed cover, it is normal to expect a large quantity to be prepared, and used. However, such examples are rarely seen for this flight, and collectors still imagine there is a hoard somewhere that will surface one day. The One Shilling postage stamp is cancelled with a comet cancellation, LONDON S.W.1, G, 6 PM, 10 JNE 1948. (Image courtesy Harsh Gupta - The Rudraksha Collection)
Above: A trio of Jal Cooper items. From Left to Right, the first is a plain cover, the second is a plain cover with the Air-India International Centaur logo, and the third is an Air Letter with the Air-India International Centaur logo printed on it. All three are cancelled LONDON F.S.  68, 10.30 AM, 11 JU 48 thereby indicating they were all mailed together in one lot. The arrival stamp on the reverse of all these three items reads BOMBAY-1, DELY, 8-A.M., 14 JUN 48, thereby validating the first return flight carriage for these items.

Return Mail from Geneva

Mail on the return flight from Geneva is even more difficult to see. For some strange reason, no ordinary letters by Air Mail seem to have made it on the flight. One story is that the post-bag with the return mail was misplaced and sent on the next flight a week later. You will see an example of this in the panel below. So, only registered mail seems to have made it on the return flight. Assuming that only one batch of covers was sent registered, it should be possible to guess the quantity by identifying the range of registration numbers from the labels. I have displayed below# 285 & 306. A. K. Bayanwalla has illustrated # 290 on his web-site. That one is a beautiful Air-India International red souvenir cover with the words London - Bombay Inaugural Flight printed on it, and addressed to Jal Cooper, Bombay. Going by this information, I would guess that about 30-40 covers sent by registered post on the return flight is a fair estimate. The general opinion of professional philatelists here is much more conservative and in single digits.
Above: Registered mail from Geneva to Bangalore, flown on the London - Bombay return flight on 12 June. Postmarked GENEVE-1, POSTE AERIENNE, 12-VI-48-7, and an arrival mark on the reverse BANGALORE, REG, 16 JUN 48.
Above: Registered mail from Geneva to Bangalore, flown on the London - Bombay return flight on 12 June. Postmarked GENEVE-1, POSTE AERIENNE, 12-VI-48-7, and an arrival mark on the reverse INLAND REGN., DELY. DEPTT, BOMBAY G.P.O., DELY, 15 JUN 48, 10.45 A.M.
This cover was intended for the return flight, but returned a week later.
Air -India International red souvenir cover for the return flight was posted in time. the cancellation mark on the postage stamp is identical with the cancellation on the registered mail, GENEVE-1, POSTE AERIENNE, 12-VI-48-7. However, the arrival mark on the reverse, BOMBAY-1, DELY, 1.30 P.M., 21 JUN 48 clearly establishes that this cover missed the first return flight.

Return Mail from Cairo

There is no clear evidence of any return mail from Cairo on this flight. It just does not seem to exist. I have come across this one registered cover with a 12 June 1948 mark, and speculate whether there is any possibility this made it on the return flight. One of the goals of this web-site is to get feedback from collectors and professionals around items like these, and increase our knowledge pool. So, all visitors are requested to send me feedback by filling in the Contact Us page.
Above: Here is a Private issue registered mail cover that was flown from Bombay to Cairo on the first outward flight, and has an arrival stamp at Cairo dated 9 Jun 18. There is another stamp which reads CAIRO DELIVERY, FOREIGN, R, 12 JUN 48, 10.00 A. One can speculate that this was returned to the sender on the return first flight, but there is no arrival stamp in Bombay to establish this.

There is another example of the Air-India souvenir cover with similar markings. You can see it in my blog of August 2016.