“Eastern Air Lines — which went out of business in 1991 — was once one of the four largest airlines in the United States. Currently in the midst of the worst worldwide economy in years where it is difficult enough to maintain the operations of a commercial airline, what would possess someone with the idea of re-launching a once-storied commercial airline?”
Eastern Air Lines Airplane Spotted
What you just read is what I first asked in this short article back on Saturday, March 7, 2009; and for greater than ten years, attempts to bring back the once legendary name in commercial aviation have either failed or faltered…
…so when I spotted an airplane with the Eastern livery, adorned with its former official color scheme earlier this month at Punta Cana International Airport in the Dominican Republic, it was a curiosity to me — but I did notice that the livery of the airplane was notably missing what some call its “hockey stick” logo, which is shown on the right.
In fact, the livery looked rather disappointingly plain and uninspired.
Eastern Air Lines was one step closer to returning to the skies, as I reported in this article on Sunday, May 17, 2015 — but that was one of the many efforts which failed.
The current iteration of the airline — which is now based in Greensboro in North Carolina — submitted an application to the Department of Transportation of the United States earlier this year to acquire the rights to operate flights between New York and Jinan in China twice per week with a stop in Anchorage starting next month.
When a charter airline known as Dynamic International Airways successfully emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2018, it changed its name to Eastern after the name was purchased from Swift Air, which bought the name from the previous iteration of the owner of the name which ceased operations at the end of 2017. The fleet of the airline reportedly consists of two Boeing 767-200 and four Boeing 767-300ER airplanes.
Summary
My first flight was on an airplane operated by American Airlines; but I have flown as a passenger on Eastern Air Lines during my early days of travel. I experienced a delay of greater than five hours on my first flight on Eastern Air Lines from New York to Miami; but a few years later, I would receive surprise upgrades to its premium class cabin on domestic flights as a member of the OnePass frequent flier loyalty program which Eastern Air Lines and Continental Airlines shared before I earned top tier elite level status at that time.
Eastern Air Lines had built a “mini-hub” of sorts in Atlanta prior to its dissolution in 1991, when I was still based in the New York metropolitan area. I was really starting to like being a passenger on that airline; so you can imagine my disappointment when the airline was no longer in operation.
As for Eastern Air Lines returning to its days of now faded glory as The Wings of Man…well…I would not hold my breath on that one…
All photographs ©2019 by Brian Cohen.
