In August 1963 the Post Office Department requested the Civil Aeronautics Board for the first time to permit the carriage of air mail by an air taxi carrier. This type of carrier normally operated small aircraft of limited capacity and connected one or more smaller communities with local service and trunk airline routes at larger cities. The second air taxi service which was authorized replaced trunkline operations at a small intermediate stop.

Starting in 1965, more air taxi mail authorizations were requested by the Post Office Department, and by the end of 1966 nine routes were in operation. In 1967 the Post Office Department greatly increased its use of air taxi services and embarked on a broad experimental air taxi mail program in an effort to replace diminished rail service and to supplement, in special areas, the schedules of the certificated air carriers. Under the new program, quick Civil Aeronautics Board authorization and equally fast service inauguration were required by the Post Office.

Route numbers were assigned by the Post Office Department to each of the air taxi routes used, starting with Air Mail Route 299 and working downward. The numbers were for administrative convenience only. From the outset the Post Office Department made no arrangements for philatelic service of covers on the air taxi service inaugurals; however, on most of the first dozen routes collector covers were handled, some even with unofficial cachets provided by the carriers themselves. But with the rapid development of the experimental program, which saw the number of mail-carrying taxis grow from 11 in October 1967 to over 32 by December of the same year, with many more to come in 1968 - 1969, it became impossible for collectors to keep up with the new services.

Nevertheless, between 1967 and 1969 these air taxi services quickly became an integral part of the United States air mail network and represented the logical next step beyond the trunkline and local service mail network.

Service over Air Mail Route 295 was inaugurated to provide service between Fort Hood (served through the Killeen, Texas Post Office) and Dallas. Service was inaugurated on June 4, 1966. 

This cover was one of only 87 pieces of mail carried on the inaugural Air Mail Route 295 flight from the Dallas, Texas Airport Mail Facility to Killeen, Texas (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Contract Air Mail Flights (CAM) section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as 295S2f.

Bob Haring, a former Editor-in-Chief of The American Air Mail Catalogue, prepared the cover.