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A 15-hour flight across Canada

Broadcast Date: March 1, 1939

It takes 15 hours and 45 minutes to fly across Canada in 1939. That's what CBC reporter Jack Peach will be doing as he hitches a ride across the country on Canada's first air mail flight. A Trans-Canada Airlines plane is set to transport about 315 kilograms of mail — or 35,000 letters — from Victoria to Montreal. Peach and the TCA staff get a grand send-off with flowers, a parade and a lineup of people mailing letters.

TCA became Canada's only national airline linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in 1937. The government-owned airline was born by an act of Parliament after years of stalling during the strapped Depression-era years. Now the engines are roaring, as heard in this CBC Radio clip.

A 15-hour flight across Canada

• On April 10, 1937, Air Canada was established as Canada's government-owned national air carrier. The company was a subsidiary of Canadian National Railways.
• Most industrialized countries already had a national airline by the early 1930s. The idea to start one in Canada was put aside by Prime Minister R.B. Bennett's government (1930-1935) because of the Great Depression.
• After Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King took office in 1935, he started the first transport department.

• Prime Minister King appointed C.D. Howe as transport minister. Howe laid the groundwork for the inauguration of TCA.
• The company got started with $5 million but didn't actually fly anywhere in its first few months.
• Instead, the airline prepared for operations: It bought three planes from Canadian Airways and scooped up staff from U.S. airlines that were already in operation.

• The first TCA flight was on July 30, 1937. Minister of Transport C.D. Howe was a passenger on the flight, which was considered more of a practice-run publicity stunt. The plane travelled for 17 hours from Montreal to Vancouver and made five stops.
• TCA didn't start commercial passenger service until Sept. 1, 1937.
• The airline's first regular route was between Vancouver and Seattle. The round trip cost $14.20.

• In December 2003, a round trip flight from Vancouver to Seattle (7-day stay) cost $499.04 on Air Canada's website.

A 15-hour flight across Canada

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC Radio News Special

Broadcast Date: March 1, 1939

Guest(s):

Reporter: Bill Herbert, Jack Peach

Duration: 4:57

Last updated:
Aug. 11, 2004