TECHNICAL DETAILS

80 YEARS OF POSTAL SERVICES

The Postal Services in the country date from August 19, 1909, when an Indian Branch Post Office, under Karachi, was opened in Dubai, by the Gulf Postal Agencies. On April 1, 1948, the British Post Office took over the Gulf Postal Agencies, until June 14, 1963, on which date Dubai ceased to be a British Postal Agency.

Throughout the early years surface mail was regularly carried by vessels of the British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., whose records suggest that one of the earliest ships to call at Dubai was the S.S. Bamore, while its sister ship, the S.S. Bombala, was the modern counterpart of the old mail carrier in the 1960s.

Air Mail services commenced in October 1932, when Imperial Airways Services to India made stops at Basra, Bashrain and Sharjah, which was the nearest port of call to Dubai. From 1938 onwards regular air services bringing mail to Dubai were maintained by aircraft of B.O.A.C.

The earliest landplane calling at Sharjah was the de Havilland 66, while Dubai received the Sunderland Flying Boat and similar aircrafts, on the quiet inland waters of its creek which is now spanned by the Maktoum Bridge. A regular commercial service through Dubai, which also carried mail, was started by the Imperial Airways with a Shorts 523 Empire Flying Boat named "Calypso".

By the 1960s all the Emirates had Post Offices and were issuing their own postage stamps. After the formation of the Federation, a Union postal administration came into being on August 1, 1972, under the Ministry of Communication. The first set of Definitive Stamps was issued on January 1, 1973.