Editing Airline (section)

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In 1926, [[Alan Cobham]] surveyed a flight route from the UK to [[Cape Town]], [[South Africa]], following this up with another proving flight to [[Melbourne]], [[Australia]]. Other routes to [[British India]] and the [[Far East]] were also charted and demonstrated at this time. Regular services to [[Cairo]] and [[Basra]] began in 1927 and were extended to [[Karachi]] in 1929. The London-[[Australia]] service was inaugurated in 1932 with the [[Handley Page HP 42]] airliners. Further services were opened up to [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], [[Rangoon]], [[Singapore]], [[Brisbane]] and [[Hong Kong]] passengers departed London on 14 March 1936 following the establishment of a branch from Penang to Hong Kong.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

[[File:Imperial routes April 1935.jpg|thumb|April 1935 map showing [[Imperial Airways]]' routes from the [[United Kingdom|UK]] to [[Australia]] and [[Union of South Africa|South Africa]]]]France began an air mail service to [[Morocco]] in 1919 that was bought out in 1927, renamed [[Aéropostale (aviation)|Aéropostale]], and injected with capital to become a major international carrier. In 1933, Aéropostale went [[Bankruptcy|bankrupt]], was nationalized and merged into [[Air France]].<ref>{{cite web |title=History of AEROPOSTALE. |url=http://postale.free.fr/aeropostale.htm |website=Aeropostale |access-date=9 June 2018}}</ref>

Although Germany lacked colonies, it also began expanding its services globally. In 1931, the airship [[LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin|Graf Zeppelin]] began offering regular scheduled passenger service between Germany and South America, usually every two weeks, which continued until 1937.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.airships.net/lz127-graf-zeppelin/history |title=LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin |publisher=Airships.net |access-date=22 August 2010}}</ref> In 1936, the airship [[LZ 129 Hindenburg|Hindenburg]] entered passenger service and successfully crossed the Atlantic 36 times before crashing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on 6 May 1937.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.airships.net/hindenburg |title=Hindenburg |publisher=Airships.net |date=10 June 2009 |access-date=22 August 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101005073820/http://www.airships.net/hindenburg| archive-date= 5 October 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> In 1938, a weekly air service from Berlin to [[Kabul]], [[Afghanistan]], started operating.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://books.stonebooks.com/history/afghanistan.shtml |title=Stone & Stone: History Page |access-date=18 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306105124/http://books.stonebooks.com/history/afghanistan.shtml |archive-date=6 March 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

From February 1934 until World War II began in 1939, [[Deutsche Luft Hansa|Deutsche Lufthansa]] operated an airmail service from [[Stuttgart]], [[Germany]] via [[Spain]], the [[Canary Islands]] and West Africa to [[Natal, Rio Grande do Norte|Natal]] in [[Brazil]]. This was the first time an airline flew across an ocean.<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pigDAAAAMBAJ&q=Popular+Science+1931+plane&pg=PA13 |title=First Transatlantic Air Line Links Two Continents|date=February 1933 |journal=Popular Science|pages = 13–15 and 104|volume = 122|issue = 2|editor-last = Brown|editor-first = Raymond J.}}</ref><ref name="Graue&Duggan">James W. Graue & John Duggan "Deutsche Lufthansa South Atlantic Airmail Service 1934–1939", Zeppelin Study Group, Ickenham, UK 2000 {{ISBN|0-9514114-5-4}}</ref>

By the end of the 1930s [[Aeroflot]] had become the world's largest airline, employing more than 4,000 pilots and 60,000 other service personnel and operating around 3,000 aircraft (of which 75% were considered obsolete by its own standards). During the Soviet era Aeroflot was synonymous with Russian civil aviation, as it was the only air carrier. It became the first airline in the world to operate sustained regular jet services on 15 September 1956 with the [[Tupolev Tu-104]].<ref>{{cite web |title=First sustained jet airline service |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-sustained-jet-airline-service/ |access-date=10 March 2020}}</ref>