Registered cover flown by JUNGERS JU-24 aircraft from Athens to Ioannina on the first flight of Helliniki Eteria Enaerion Syngynonion (Hellenic Air Communications Company) endorsed with violet single-line “ΣΥΣΤΗΜΕΝΗ” (Registered) unframed handstamp; franked with 5lepta ‘Hermes with Arcas, infant’ + 3dr. ‘Hermes with Arcas, infant’ (Lithographic issue, 1913/1927) + 20lepta ‘Macedonian costume’ pair + 25lepta ‘Simon Petras Monastery (Mount Athos)’ + 40lepta ‘White Tower, Thessaloniki’ pair + 1dr. ‘Temple of Theseus’ (Landscapes I issue, 1927) adhesives cancelled ΑΘΗΝΑΙ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΗ ΑΕΡΟΠΟΡΙΚΩΣ 12.XI.31 [Athens Dispatch by Air, 12 November 1931].
Total franking: 5.50 drachmae; 1.50dr. for domestic surface mail (in effect from 30 April 1930 to 30 April 1932), and 3dr. for registry fee (in effect from 1 May 1927 to 11 April 1933) plus 1dr., provided for the airmail tax on the route between Athens and Ioannina.
Bears a single unperforated 3-line airmail label (44x16mm), texted in Greek: “BY AIR / via the Hellenic Air Communications Company S.A.”; EEES 1931 issue, navy/pink impression.
Handstruck oblong framed Greek/French ‘ΕΝΑΕΡΙΩΣ / PAR AVION’ [By air / By airplane] 2-line airmail cachet applied in violet along with the official commemorative marking –in the form of an airplane–used for the first mail flown from Ioannina to Athens, inscribed in Greek “Inauguration of Air communication ATHENS – IOANNINA / 1931”.
Backstamped on arrival at Ioannina with the special biplane incoming local cachet texted ‘ΑΕΡΟΠΟΡΙΚΗ ΑΦΙΞΙΣ’ [Arrival by air] in violet, and postmarked ΙΩΑΝΝΙΝΑ (ΑΦΙΞΙΣ) 12.XI.31 [Ioannina Arrival, 12 November 1931].
Probably philatelic.
Condition: Fine; see scans.