Eastern Air Lines (English)

Eastern Air Lines was a US airline that flew from 1926 to 1991 an had its main headquartes in Miami. Eastern had two other subsidiaries, Eastern Express, a regional airline and Eastern Shuttle, quick service airline. Eastern also had many major hubs in many cities in the US, mostly in the eastern US and flew with many types of aircraft in its fleet. Eastern was the first to fly the Boeing 727 and Boeing 757 and was also one of the first to fly the LockheedMartin L1011. Eastern was the first US airline to fly the Airbus A300. Eastern flew all over the US and to Canada, Mexico, Caribean, Latin America and Europe. Eastern was established on April 19, 1926 as Pitcairn Aviation by Harold Frederick Pitcairn, son of Pittsburgh Plate Glass founder John Pitcairn, Jr as an airmail carrier flying from New York city to Altanta, Georgia using a MailWing single-engine aircraft .In 1929 Clement Keys ,owner of North American Aviation, bought Pitcairn and in 1930 changed its name to Eastern Air Transport. In 1934 General Motors bought Eastern Air Tranport and changed its name to Eastern Air Lines. In 1938 Eddie Rickenbacker, a soldier in World War I, bought Eastern and became its first CEO. During the 1940s, Eastern bought competitors and more advanced planes and also opened it first international routes. During the World War II, Eddie Rickenbacker provided the United States with aircraft and personal from Eastern Air Lines. In the 1950s, Eastern planes were very prominent up and down the east coast of the United States. In 1956 the airline purchased Canadian airline Colonial Airlines, giving the airline its first service to Canada. On October 1, 1959, Malcolm A. MacIntyre 'a smart lawyer, but inexperienced in airline operations' tookover the CEO job from Eddie Rickenbacker. In 1960 Eastern started to fly its first jets with Douglas DC8-21s. On April 30, 1961 Eastern inaugurated Eastern Air Shuttle, quick service airline between New York LaGuardia, Boston Logan and WashingtonDC National airports. On 16 December 1963, a new management team headed by Floyd D. Hall took over the operations of Eastern. Rickenbacker retired as Director and Chairman of the Board on December 31, 1963. Floyd D. Hall gave Eastern its now famous hockey stick livery that it used until the end. In 1970/71 Eastern leased a couple of Boeing 747s from Pan Am. In 1971 Eastern became the oficial airline of Walt Disney World. On 29 December. 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a new Lockheed L-1011) was preparing to land in Miami, when the flight crew was distracted by a non-functioning light gear. The flight crashed in the Everglades. In 1975 Frank Borman, ex astronaut of NASA, became CEO of Eastern and moved it headquarters from New York to Miami. It was Frank Borman that strated Eastern's international expansion. It started with destinations in the Bahamas and Santo Domingo. and also began flying to more destinations from San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1976 Eastern commemorated the bicentennial of the United States, according to the "Spirit of 1976. In 1980, Eastern opened a hub in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1982 Eastern bought Braniff's Latin American routes and in 1985 began flying its first European route to London. By 1985 Eastern was the largest airline in the world in passenger numbers and had already been flying to 26 countries on three continents. In Febuary 1986, Eastern was sold to Texas Air Corporation and Frank Lorenzo replaced Frank Borman as CEO. In the late 1980s Eastern got into financial troubles and in 1990 was forced to sell its Latin American routes to American Airlines. During Lorenzo's tenure, Eastern was crippled by severe labor unrest. Eastern had also already been facing competition from low-cost airlines for a few years. Frank Lorenzo had asked the staff to accept deep cuts in pay and benefits but they did not accept and therefore Eastern was forced to file for bankruptcy protection. In 1988 Phil Bakes, the president of Eastern Air Lines, announced plans to lay off 4,000 employees and eliminate and reduce service to airports in the Western United States and return Eastern to its roots in the East Coast of the United States. In 1989, Donald Trump bought Eastern Shuttle and changed its name to Trump Shuttle. Later Trump Shuttle was sold to US Air and today it flies under the name US Airways Shuttle. Eastern filed for bankruptcy protection on March 9, 1989 and the bankruptcy court repalced Frank Lorenzo with Martin Shugue as CEO who kept the airline flying without unions. Eastern kept losing money and shut down at midnight on January 19, 1991 after several months of uncertainty. Martin Shugue was the final CEO. Eastern flew Boeing 727s and 757s, LockheedMartin L1011's, McDonellDouglas DC9s and DC10s and Airbus A300s at the time of closure. It was the largest employer in Miami-Dade. Most of the staff who lost their jobs were living in Miami, Atlanta and New York City. After the shutdown there had been many intensions to restart Eastern. In 1994, Martin Shugue, wanted to restart Eastern as a new airline based in Miami and flying mostly in the eastern United States using airplanes and accets leftover from the original airline. Martin Shugue instead decided to revive Pan Am in 1996. There was another intension to restart Eastern in the mid 2000s as a charter airline but nothing ended up happening. The last time someone wanted to restart Eastern was in 2009. Ed Wegal wanted to start a new Eastern based in Miami with a fleet of Airbus A320 planes. This has not yet happen and the name Eastern is not in use by any airline at this time.