'First regular airmail service to Australia'. Imperial Airways schedules were always complicated - the HP.45 flew to Karachi and an AW.15 Atalanta continued to Darwin. As there was too much demand for the inaugural flight, the public were fooled: Hengist actually carried mail for India while letters for Australia had been dispatched via the old route to Karachi which involved a train between Paris and Brindisi. Even when transported entirely by air, the mail still took almost two weeks from London to Sydney.