Only seven months after “invading” the South Pacific, American Airlines was able to launch a new route from New York and Washington to the Caribbean as the result of taking over Trans Caribbean Airways. Trans Caribbean Airways had incurred substantial losses and agreed to merge into the much larger airline.

This cover was carried on the March 2, 1971 inaugural Foreign Air Mail Route 26 flight from the John F Kennedy Airport Mail Facility in New York to Curacao (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Foreign Air Mail (FAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as F26-45F.

"Uncle Sam" Goldsticker, a noted air mail historian, prepared the cover.