List of Overseas Destinations and their Airmail Zones

Introduction

This page attempts to list the postal rate zones for all of the named destinations to which airmail could be sent from the United Kingdom during the various rate periods – essentially, those that appeared in the airmail leaflets or Post Office Schemes, together with any commonly used variations and alternatives. The English versions of the names are therefore used. (Given the number of political changes since 1947, there may well be others that should be added – please let us know if you spot any.)

The general rule is that a zone is only listed for a particular country or territory name if it was extant in the period in question. Thus many colonial territory names that became obsolete after independence appear only in the first period. Conversely, the various former republics of the Soviet Union do not, as that country broke apart in 1991.

Some destinations have changed zones over the years, and this is noted in the tables (with start dates when in the middle of a rate period) – for example, a number of places in Latin America and the West Indies were in zone C for the first year or so, thereafter becoming zone B. A few places that were in zone 1 or 2 when the zones were combined into a single “Rest of World” zone in 2008 had changed zone when this zone was split again in 2012. The USA became Zone 3 by itself in 2020.

European Destinations

"Eur" means that the general Europe rate applied, while "EU" means that from the date specified, the destination was treated as part of the European Economic Community or (from 1993) the European Union. Special rates to the EEC or EU applied in two cases:

• Separate tables of rates for EU and non-EU European destinations were quoted in Post Office Schemes from 20th October 1986 until 2009, although the only difference was a lower first step rate for letters and postcards from 1986-98 (equal to inland first class). This applied to all-up mail 1986-91 and airmail 1991-98; from 6th April 1998 both sets of rates were identical.
• As a result of an ECJ ruling, from 31st January 2011 until the end of the Brexit transition period on 31st December 2020 certain "enhanced" services that were not part of the basic universal provision became liable to VAT on the total charge when used to EU destinations.

A few European territories (Canary Islands, San Marino, Vatican City) were listed as part of the EEC/EU until 2009 for the purpose of the concessionary rate, but are not currently regarded as such as they are not part of the EU VAT zone. Documentation of the changeover date has been hard to find, but it is assumed that it was 31st January 2011, when VAT was first applied to certain services.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z