When the Post Office announced that Foreign Air Mail Route 19 would be inaugurated on July 12, 1940, it was stated that the beginning of the route, originally San Francisco-Honolulu, had been changed to San Francisco-Los Angeles-Honolulu, with the provision that no domestic mail would be carried between San Francisco and Los Angeles. [San Pedro was the flying boat harbor for Los Angeles.] The balance of the route was Canton Island, Noumea, New Caledonia and Auckland, New Zealand.

This cover was carried on the inaugural Foreign Air Mail Route 19 flight from Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii to Noumea, New Caledonia (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Foreign Air Mail Flights (FAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as F19-3b.