''For the Chinese airline, see
China Eastern Airlines .''
was a United States
Airline company that existed from the late 1920s until 1991.
Eastern Air Lines began life on
April 19 ,
1926 , as . Pitcairn won a government contract to fly the U.S. Mail between
New York City and
Atlanta, Georgia , operating Mailwing single-engine aircraft. In
1929 Clement Keys, the owner of North American Aviation, purchased Pitcairn. In
1930 he changed the name to '''Eastern Air Transport''', and it would soon be known as Eastern Air Lines.
In
1938 , the airline was purchased by
World War I flying ace
Eddie Rickenbacker . Rickenbacker pushed Eastern into a period of prodigious growth. Throughout the
1940s , competitors were acquired, more advanced planes were purchased and international routes were opened. By the
1950s , Eastern's propellers were very prominent up and down the
East Coast of the
United States .
In
1960 Eastern's first
Jets , Douglas
DC-8 s arrived, allowing Eastern to open non-stop service from
New York City 's
Idlewild International Airport to
LAX . The DC-8s were joined in
1962 by the Boeing 720, then in 1964 by a regional airliner, the
Boeing 727 . Around this time, Eastern started changing their plane's livery colors to include the dark blue ''hockey stick'' design, iconic in the airline industry.
The
1970s brought dramatic changes in the configuration of Eastern Air Lines. Internationalization began as Eastern opened routes to new markets such as
Madrid ,
Mexico City ,
Santo Domingo ,
Nassau, Bahamas and
London . Services from
San Juan, Puerto Rico 's
Luis Munoz Marin International Airport were expanded, and Eastern bought the
Lockheed L-1011 jet, which would become known in the
Caribbean as ''El Grandote'' (the huge one).
Boeing 747 s, leased from Pan Am, were also introduced for a short time during that period, and Eastern became the official airline of
Walt Disney World . Eastern's official ride at Disney's Magic Kingdom park was
If You Had Wings .
During the
1970s , Eastern Air Lines flights suffered two crashes, one of which became a subject for a
Hollywood movie.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was preparing to land in
Miami, Florida , in
1972 , when the flight crew became distracted by a non-functioning gear light. While pre-occupied with fixing the light, the
Autopilot was inadvertently disengaged, allowing the plane to drift far below its planned flight path. The flight crashed in the
Everglades , near the same site of the
ValuJet Flight 592 DC-9 crash 23 years later. In Eastern's flight 401 case, it was rumored that the ghost of the
Pilot who flew that night was later seen on some Eastern planes that carried parts of the doomed plane. While this was an unproven legend, it was the subject of the movie ''
The Ghost Of Flight 401 ''.
In
1975 Eastern Flight 66 (a
Boeing 727 ) crashed on landing at
JFK in
New York City , killing 113 people. The official cause of the accident was
Wind Shear , a phenomenon that affects the lifting capacity of an airplane's wing, and that can occur in severe weather conditions.
The
Airline Deregulation Act of
1978 aggravated its position, forcing Eastern into a competitive low-fare environment in which its high cost of operation put the airline at a decided disadvantage. Its all-important
Atlanta Hub placed it in direct competition with
Delta Air Lines , a more profitable company that avoided labor wars and built a far-reaching route system through the acquisition of other carriers.
Eastern was rolling along when the
1980s started, under its new president, former
Astronaut Frank Borman . In
1980 , a Caribbean hub was inaugurated at
San Juan, Puerto Rico (then still named Isla Verde International Airport). In
1982 , Eastern acquired
Braniff International 's
South America n route network. During this era, Eastern's fleet was split between their "silver-colored hockey stick" livery (the lack of paint reduced weight by 100 pounds) and their "white-colored hockey stick" livery (on its Airbus-manufactured planes, the metallurgy of which required paint to cover the aircraft's composite skin panels).
In
1983 , Eastern became the launch customer of
Boeing 's new aircraft, the
Boeing 757 . Its low cost of operation would make it an invaluable asset to the airline in the years to come. In that same year, Eastern reintroduced service to
Ponce , Puerto Rico, using
Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner planes under the name
Eastern Metro Express . The Eastern Metro Express operation wasn't limited to Ponce, however, as, under that name, Eastern began services from its San Juan hub to
Mayagüez and several other smaller Caribbean communities, from
JFK to several northeastern cities, and from Miami to many cities around the South.
Eastern began losing money as it faced competition from no-frills airlines, such as
People Express , which offered drastically reduced fares. In an attempt to differentiate itself from its bargain competitors, Eastern began a marketing campaign stressing its quality of service and its rank of highly experienced pilots. The public, however, just wanted cheap fares.
Unable to keep up, in
1986 , Borman sold the airline to
Frank Lorenzo . Under Lorenzo's tenure, Eastern was crippled by severe labor unrest. Asked to accept deep cuts in benefits, Eastern's machinists went on
Strike . Lorenzo sold Eastern's shuttle service to real estate magnate
Donald Trump in 1989, under whom it became the
Trump Shuttle , while selling other parts of Eastern to his
Texas Air holding company and its major subsidiary,
Continental Airlines , on disadvantageous terms to Eastern. The machinists were soon joined on the picket line by the pilots. Due to the strike, flights were cancelled, resulting in lost revenue for the airline. As a result of the strike and other financial problems, Eastern filed for
Bankruptcy protection on
March 9 .
The ''coup de grace'' for Eastern, it can be said, was the
1990 Gulf War . At a nice profit, Eastern sold its Central and South American route network to
American Airlines and its transatlantic route network to
Continental Airlines . With the higher oil prices and the public's fear of flying at the time, Eastern's sales kept suffering, and Eastern had its last flight in January
1991 , officially shutting down on
January 18 .
An airline entrepreneur,
Martin Shugrue , considered reviving Eastern in
1995 , but the decision was made to revive
Pan Am instead.
In
1961 Eastern inaugurated the Eastern Air Shuttle, featuring hourly flights of
Lockheed Constellation s and
Electra s between
New York-LaGuardia ,
Washington, D.C.-National , and
Boston-Logan Airports.
The service emphasized convenience and simplicity—revolutionary in an era when air travel was both considered and expected to be a luxury. Not only were seat reservations not required, seat assignments were not given, and initially no check-in was required and no boarding passes were issued. Eastern guaranteed availability, however, and planes flew hourly whether empty or full. In the event of a full flight, Eastern simply added another aircraft. Jets were added in
1967 and the shuttle became all-jet in
1978 with a fleet of dedicated
Boeing 727 s.
The shuttle proved one of Eastern's most successful ventures. Other airlines, including
Pan American World Airways , eventually set up competing services. In
1989 , financially struggling Eastern sold the operation to real estate magnate
Donald Trump , who rebranded it the
Trump Shuttle .
Boeing assigned Eastern Air Lines the customer number 25 for all aircraft produced by the company.
- Eastern used to be the main sponsor of Puerto Rican Basketball team ''Cariduros de Fajardo '', a team that carried Eastern's logo on its jerseys.
- Boxer Wilfredo Gomez was pictured by El Vocero photographers inside an Eastern Air Lines L-1011 TriStar jet before taking off for his bout with Lupe Pintor in New Orleans, Louisiana .
- "Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell." - Frank Borman , former CEO of Eastern Air Lines in 1986, five years before Eastern declared bankruptcy.
- After Eastern Air Lines ceased opperations, some of their pilots and managers went on to purchase part of the fleet of airplanes, and on September 21, 1992, they formed Kiwi International Air Lines .
