By 1931, mail from Australia was reaching Britain in just 16 days − less than half the time taken by sea. In that year, government tenders on both sides of the world invited applications to run new passenger and mail services between the ends of the Empire, and Qantas and IAL were successful with a joint bid. A company under combined ownership was then formed, Qantas Empire Airways. The new ten-day service between Rose Bay, New South Wales, (near Sydney) and Southampton was such a success with letter writers that before long, the volume of mail was exceeding aircraft storage space.