Eastern Air Lines

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Eastern Air Lines
IATA EA	ICAO EAL	Callsign EASTERN
Founded		1926 (as Pitcairn Aviation)
Ceased operations		January 18, 1991
Hubs		Miami International Airport Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Kansas City International Airport JFK International Airport LaGuardia Airport San Juan Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport Charlotte/Douglas International Airport
Focus cities		Orlando International Airport Tampa International Airport
Frequent flyer program		OnePass
Member lounge		Ionosphere Club
Fleet size		304
Destinations		140
Parent company		Eastern Air Lines, Inc. (Texas Air Corporation)
Headquarters		New York City Miami-Dade County, Florida
Key people		Eddie Rickenbacker (First CEO), Floyd Hall, Frank Borman, Frank Lorenzo (Final CEO)

Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.^[1]

[edit] History

Eastern Air Lines was a composite of assorted air travel corporations, including Florida Air Ways and Pitcairn Aviation, the latter of which was established on April 19, 1926, by Harold Frederick Pitcairn, son of Pittsburgh Plate Glass founder John Pitcairn, Jr.

In the late 1920s, Pitcairn Aviation won a government contract to fly mail between New York City and Atlanta, Georgia, using Mailwing single-engine aircraft. In 1929 Clement Keys, the owner of North American Aviation, purchased Pitcairn. In 1930, Keys changed the company's name to Eastern Air Transport, soon to be known as Eastern Air Lines after being purchased by General Motors and experiencing a change in corporate leadership brought on by the Airmail Act of 1934.

In 1938, the airline was purchased by World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker from General Motors. This very complex deal was concluded when Rickenbacker presented Alfred P. Sloan with a certified check for $3.5 million. Rickenbacker pushed Eastern into a period of prodigious growth and innovation. For a time, Eastern was the most profitable airline in the post-war era. In the late 1950s, Eastern's fortunes changed, and Rickenbacker was forced out of his CEO position on October 1, 1959. His ouster was due largely to his reluctance to acquire jets. He felt they were a fad and that his fleet of turboprop Lockheed Electras [was] good enough. He left his position as chairman of the board on December 31, 1963.

During the beginnings of World War II, military aviation equipment had not been widely produced in the United States. The United States war effort required civilian resources. Due to the efforts of Eddie Rickenbacker, Eastern Air Lines provided the United States with aircraft and personnel.

An Eastern Air Lines DC-3, on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Throughout the 1940s, competitors were acquired, more advanced planes were purchased and international routes were opened.

By the 1950s, Eastern's aircraft were very prominent up and down the East Coast of the United States. In 1956, they purchased Canadian airline Colonial Airlines, which gave the airline their first service to Canada.^[2]

In 1960 Eastern's first jets, Douglas DC-8s arrived, allowing Eastern to open non-stop service from New York City's Idlewild International Airport to Miami. The DC-8s were joined in 1962 by the Boeing 720, then in 1964 by the Boeing 727, which Eastern (and United) helped Boeing develop beginning in 1956. Eastern was the first airline to fly the 727 on February 3, 1964 (The 727 became the fastest selling airliner in the world). Shortly after that "Captain Eddie" Rickenbacher retired and a new image was adopted, which included the now famous hockey stick design which is officially Caribbean Blue over Bahama Blue. Eastern was also the first US carrier to fly the A-300 and the first airline to fly the 757.

In 1961 Eastern inaugurated the Eastern Air Shuttle, featuring hourly flights of Lockheed Constellations and Electras between New York-LaGuardia, Washington, D.C.-National, and Boston-Logan airports.

The groundbreaking 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. Jet airliners were added in 1967 and the shuttle became all-jet in 1978 with a fleet of dedicated Boeing 727s.

The shuttle proved one of Eastern's most successful ventures. Other airlines, including Pan American World Airways, eventually set up competing services.

Eastern Air Shuttle's landing rights and some aircraft were bought by Trump Airlines to run the Trump Shuttle. US Airways later bought the service from Trump Airlines, and respectively named it US Airways Shuttle. Pan Am's shuttle service was bought by Delta Air Lines to become the Delta Shuttle, which directly competes with the US Airways Shuttle.

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 Muñoz Marín International Airport were expanded.

Eastern bought the Lockheed L-1011 and Airbus A300 widebody jets; the former would become known in the Caribbean as El Grandote (the huge one). Boeing 747s, leased from Pan Am, would fly between Chicago and San Juan as well as New York to San Juan. Although they purchased 4, they were sold to TWA, before delivery. They were also introduced for a short time while the carrier awaited the delivery of the L-1011.

Logo on an Eastern Air Lines DC-3

Just before Walt Disney World opened in 1971, Eastern established service at Orlando and became the official airline of Walt Disney World. This proved to be extremely beneficial for Eastern as well as Disney. It remained the official airline of Walt Disney World, which even had an Eastern-themed ride at its park (If You Had Wings in Tomorrowland where Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin is currently located), until its contracting route network forced Disney to switch to Delta shortly before Eastern's 1989 bankruptcy filing. The ride was subsequently rethemed.

The famous "Wings of Man" campaign, which began in the late 1960s, was created by advertising agency, Young & Rubicam, and restored Eastern's tarnished image until the late 1970s, when former astronaut Frank Borman became president and it was replaced by a new campaign, "We Have To Earn Our Wings Every Day". The new campaign, which featured Borman as a spokesperson, was used until the mid-to-late 1980s.

Under bankruptcy Eastern launched a "100 Days" campaign, in which it promised to "become a little bit better every day".

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.

In 1975 Eastern was headquartered at 10 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.^[3]

Eastern's massive Atlanta hub placed it in direct competition with Delta Air Lines, where both carriers competed heavily with one another to neither's benefit. Delta's less-unionized work force and slowly expanding international route network helped lead it through the turbulent period following deregulation in 1978.

Eastern Airbus A300 at St Maarten in 1986.

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 Airways' South American route network. In 1985 Eastern was the largest airline in the free world in terms of passengers enplaned and operated in 26 countries on three continents.

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, which was ordered in 1978. Borman felt that its low cost of operation would make it an invaluable asset to the airline in the years to come. However, higher oil prices failed to materialize and the debt created by this purchase coupled with the Airbus A300 purchases made in 1977 proved to be a millstone around Eastern's neck, contributing to the February 1986 sale to Frank Lorenzo's Texas Air. At that time, Eastern was paying over $700,000 in interest each day before they sold a ticket, fueled or boarded a single aircraft.

In the 1980s, Eastern needed an aircraft for the Miami-London Route. They were to purchase two Boeing 747-238 aircraft from the Australian airline Qantas. However, the airline was not allowed permission to fly the route and the deal fell through. The two aircraft, N371EA and N372EA, were already painted and were subsequently reinstated in the Qantas fleet.

An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 "Whisperliner"

In that same year, Eastern reintroduced service to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter planes under the name Eastern Metro Express. The Eastern Metro Express operation wasn't limited to Mayagüez, however, as, under that name, Eastern Metro Express began service from its San Juan hub to Borinquen and several other smaller Caribbean communities. Also, from Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Int'l Airport it served numerous feeder cities. Bar Harbor Airlines serving as Eastern Express spoked from Miami Int'l Airport to many cities around the southeast.

Eastern began losing money as it faced competition from no-frills airlines, such as People Express, which offered drastically reduced air 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.

Unable to keep up, Borman agreed to the sale of the airline in 1986 to Texas Air, led by Frank Lorenzo. Lorenzo (who was named as one of Time Magazine's 10 "worst bosses of the century") was known as a ruthless corporate raider and union buster. He had already purchased Continental and lost a bidding war for TWA to Carl Icahn.

Although Eastern's employees saw Lorenzo at the time as a savior, he would prove to be anything but a hero to the employees by the end of the decade. This event is widely seen as the beginning of the unwinding of the company, and the beginning of a steep decline into a period that saw strikes, empty planes, mass layoffs, bankruptcy, and eventually a ceasing of operations.

During Lorenzo's tenure, Eastern was crippled by severe labor unrest. Asked to accept deep cuts in pay and benefits, Eastern's mechanics and ramp service employees, represented by the IAM (International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers), walked out on March 4, 1989. A sympathy strike called by the pilots represented by ALPA (Air Line Pilots Assn.) and flight attendants represented by TWU (Transport Workers Union) effectively shut down the airline's domestic operations. Non-contract employees, including airport gate and ticket counter agents and reservation sales agents, did not honor the strike. Due to the strike, flights were canceled, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in revenue.

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.

As a result of the strike, weakened airline structure, inability to compete after deregulation and other financial problems, Eastern filed for bankruptcy protection on March 9, 1989. This gave Lorenzo breathing room, and allowed him to continue operating the airline with non-union employees. When control of the airline was taken away from Lorenzo by the courts and given to Marty Shugrue, it continued operations in an attempt to correct its cash flow, but to no avail. With the airline collapsing from debt, it ran out of money to operate on January 18, 1991 following the run-up to the Gulf War. Over 18,000 employees lost their jobs and pensions in one day, not including the thousands laid off or furloughed prior to the collapse.

An asset liquidation sale was commenced later that year and provided Eastern's creditors with a remarkably good payout.

Martin Shugrue, an airline entrepreneur who was once the bankruptcy trustee of Eastern, considered reviving it in 1995, but the decision was made to revive Pan Am instead.

2009 - a group of employees and an investor group are exploring the rebirth of EAL as a full-service airline.^[4]

[edit] Fleet

Eastern Airlines flew many different types of aircraft throughout its history:

Martin 4-0-4

• Pitcairn Mailwing with which began operations as Eastern Air Transport Inc.
• Ford Tri-Motor from 1930-1932
• Fokker F-X
• Curtiss Condor from 1930-1934
• Lockheed Electra from 1935-1936
• Douglas DC-2
• Douglas DC-3 from 1936-1953
• Curtiss Commando
• Martin 4-0-4 of which Eastern had the largest fleet with 60 of the type in operation.
• Douglas DC-4
• Convair 440 Metropolitan
• L-1049 Super Constellation from 1951-1968
• Douglas DC-7B from 1953-1966
• Lockheed L-188 Electra beginning 1959
• DC-8-21 beginning in 1960
• DC-8-61/63
• Boeing 720-025
• Boeing 727-25 beginning in 1 February 1964 with Eastern as the launch customer.
• Boeing 727-225 beginning in 1968
• DC-9-14 beginning in February 1965
• DC-9-31
• DC-9-50
• Boeing 747-100 leased from Pan Am before the L-1011s arrived
• Boeing 747-200 NTU
• L-1011-385-1 TriStar beginning in 1972
• Airbus A300B4
• Boeing 757-225 beginning in 1983
• Douglas DC-10
• Lockheed JetStar for corporate use.

[edit] Notable accidents

Eastern weathered crashes over the years of varying damage to the company and passenger injuries and deaths. Some of the crashes contributed to the future safety of American air transportation, such as Eastern's first accident caused by the construction of temporary utility poles at the end of a runway.

• In 1941, Eastern Air Lines Flight 21 crashed near Atlanta, almost killing Eddie Rickenbacker, who was traveling on airline business. His recovery in the hospital received broad press coverage; during his initial recovery several news reports claimed that he had died.

• On October 4, 1960, Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 (a Lockheed L-188 Electra) departing Boston's Logan International Airport for Philadelphia crashed on takeoff after striking a flock of birds. Sixty-two of the 72 passengers and crew were killed.

• On November 30, 1962, Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 (a Douglas DC-7) crashed during a go around after failing to land due to fog at Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in New York City. Out of the 51 passengers and crew on board, 25 were killed.

• On February 25, 1964, Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 (a Douglas DC-8) flying from New Orleans International Airport to Washington-National Airport crashed into Lake Pontchartrain enroute due to "degradation of aircraft stability characteristics in turbulence, because of abnormal longitudinal trim component positions." All 51 passengers and 7 crew aboard were killed.

• On February 8, 1965, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663, a Douglas DC-7 departing from New York City to Richmond, Virginia, crashed at Jones Beach State Park after takeoff from JFK when it was forced to evade inbound Pan Am Flight 212. All 84 onboard died. The evasive action was blamed for leaving the plane out of control.

• Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a brand new Lockheed L-1011) was preparing to land in Miami, Florida, on December 29, 1972, when the flight crew became distracted by a non-functioning gear light. The flight crashed in the Everglades.

• On the morning of September 11, 1974, Eastern Air Lines Flight 212, a DC-9-31 carrying 78 passengers and 4 crew operating as a scheduled flight from Charleston, South Carolina, to Chicago, Illinois, with an intermediate stop in Charlotte, North Carolina, crashed while conducting an instrument approach in dense ground fog at Douglas Municipal Airport (now called Charlotte/Douglas International Airport). The aircraft crashed just short of the runway, killing 71 of the occupants. 13 people survived the initial impact, but three subsequently died from their injuries. One of the initial survivors died of injuries 29 days after the accident. The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and resulting post-crash fire. Also killed on this flight were James, Peter, and Paul Colbert, the father and older brothers (respectively) of comedian Stephen Colbert.^[5]

• On June 24, 1975, Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 (a Boeing 727) crashed into the runway approach lights, as it penetrated a thunderstorm which was astride the ILS localizer course line to that runway, at JFK in New York City, killing 113 people. The official cause of the accident was a sudden high rate of descent, caused by severe downdrafts from the thunderstorm, and the continued use of that runway by both flight crews and ATC, after they became aware of the location of that hazardous weather. The aircraft hit a motorcyclist on impact, and ABA basketball star Wendell Ladner was one of the passengers killed in the crash. Most of the deceased were killed by fire after impact rather than the crash itself. The two flight attendants in the rear of the plane survived the fire because they were doused with the liquid contents of the rear lavatories, which kept them alive. The aircraft that landed on the same runway just prior to EAL Flight 66 was another Eastern aircraft, an L-1011, that managed to fight through the wind shear by having both pilots put their feet on the instrument panel and pulling back on the wheel with all of their strength. After landing, they radioed the tower to close that runway, but it was too late for EAL Flight 66.

• On January 1, 1985, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 (a Boeing 727) struck Mount Illimani on a flight from Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asunción, Paraguay, to El Alto International Airport in La Paz, Bolivia. All 25 passengers and 4 crew were killed on impact.

[edit] References

• Rickenbacker: An Autobiography. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Prentice Hall, 1967.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eastern Air Lines

• Aviation Safety Network list of Eastern Air Lines accidents from 1943 to 1990
• Eastern Airlines Indicted in Scheme Over Maintenace - The New York Times
• SHUGRUE RECOUNTS EASTERN'S FINAL DAYS SAYS FINAL NAIL WAS DECEMBER'S DISMAL SHOWING - Miami Herald