Some questions about USPS International Mail?

Question

How does a letter sent First Class International get to its destination?

Say I'm sending a letter from Columbia, SC to Indonesia. I'm sure the letter travels to an airport, but is it transported by ground or air? Let's say it goes to ATL airport and there are no airlines that have flights to Indonesia. Where is it flown...is it flown to an intermediate country? How is it transported from there?

I'm looking for a rundown of how it all works. Any answers are GREATLY appreciated. I've spent alot of time browsing the web but can't find any answers. Thank You!

Answer 1

The reason the answer isn't on the web is because there are so many different ways that it could possibly get there that they really cant explain them all.  Basically, your mail goes to the first airport that is located closest to you.  It is flown to a routing airport, where it is then filtered into international mail and sent by plan to another routing airport.  Since you are talking about Indonesia, I doubt it would go directly to Jakarta.  It would probably be sent to Manila, Philippines.  From there, it would hop on yet another plane to Indonesia, and then ground to wherever it needs to go.  It is just like when you go on a flight for vacation or something that doesnt have a direct flight, they can bounce around quite a bit before they actually stop in the place you want them to.  Even local mail is weird, my local mail actually goes out of my state before it returns back because thats where the closest routing office is.

Answer 2

UPS and other big co. has its own flights even their own terminal in the airports.