Flying High: Airline Passenger Certificates

I was a late bloomer: I never flew on an airplane until I was an adult, and it wasn’t any further than I’ve driven in a car. And, it wasn’t a special event — the flying that is, although Christmas is always a little special — so it had all the romance and pleasure of riding in a school bus.

If I were a decade or two younger, it would have been a bit more magical — lifting free from the ground, cruising at a couple hundred miles an hour, crossing states when I could barely conceive the size of my neighborhood…plus, everyone know that kids get their own little set of plastic wings, just like the pilots. That would almost be worth all the ear-popping and turbulence a kid can get. What most kids don’t know is that airlines quite often provide something a bit more than a jewelry trinket: many airlines give certificates to passengers on extra-special flights. While this is mostly for kids, they’re sometimes given for some special events, like long non-stop flights or the first flight of an aircraft.

Certificates of this sort have been around almost as long as airlines. As an ephemera collectible these can be quite rare, especially blank certificates. Certificates found in the marketplace tend to be filled-in, usually by a flight attendant or representative from the airlines. Also, because these are given to kids in the middle of travelling, they’re often stained and creased. For a rather limited-edition object, a lot of artistic style went into a lot of these certificates; I’m surprised how few there are on the internet. Have no fear, though: I have a couple. These two are my favorites:

This certificate came from TWA, awarded for crossing the great Atlantic Ocean on behalf of King Neptune himself. In 1953, crossing the Atlantic by airplane was still quite exotic for the average person. In the 1930s, some transatlantic flights via both airplane and zeppelin occurred, but even in the post-WWII years long-distance flights were still a luxury. The first non-stop Transatlantic flight ever was in 1919, only 35 years before this certificate was issued. This particular certificate notes the flight from Paris to New York — the same distance Lindbergh flew entirely on his own 25 years before. According to the gold labels at the bottom, Margaret, the recipient of this certificate, flew the route twice.

If flying across the Atlantic seemed big, how about crossing to the other half of the world? In 1970, Janett cross the Equator on an Ethiopian Airlines plane and was awarded this certificate. Although not as impressive as an endorsement by King Neptune himself, the certificate bestows upon the bearer the title of “Aviaticus Solaris Empyrus,” a mish-mosh of pseudo-latin that sounds quite impressive. The purpose of the certificates is not so much to certify anything important, but to engender a positive relationship with the passengers. As if the flight isn’t memorable enough, having one of these sheets in a scrapbook would help remind a kid exactly what it meant when they boarded the plane. Children love bright colors, fanciful elephants, and elaborate titles, making these certificates great artifacts of pop art and airline memorabilia that’s not very common.