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Founded | 1926 | (as Pitcairn Aviation)||||||
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Operating bases | Miami International Airport | ||||||
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Frequent-flyer program | OnePass | ||||||
Fleet size | 304 | ||||||
Destinations | 140 | ||||||
Company slogan |
List of slogans
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Parent company | Eastern Air Lines, Inc. (Texas Air Corporation now United Continental Holdings ) | ||||||
Headquarters |
New York City Miami-Dade County, Florida |
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Key people |
Eddie Rickenbacker (First CEO) Floyd Hall Frank Borman Frank Lorenzo Martin Shugrue |
Eastern Air Lines was a major American airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Eastern was one of the "Big Four" domestic airlines created by the Spoils Conferences of 1930, and was headed by World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker in its early years. It had a near monopoly in air travel between New York and Florida from the 1930s and 1940s and dominated this market for decades afterward. Labor disputes and high debt loads strained the company in the late 1970s and early 1980s under the leadership of former astronaut Frank Borman. Frank Lorenzo acquired Eastern in 1985 and moved many of its assets to his other airlines, including Continental Airlines and Texas Air. After continued labor disputes and a crippling strike in 1989, Eastern ran out of money and was liquidated in 1991.American Airlines obtained many of Eastern's routes from Miami to Latin America and the Caribbean, while Delta Air Lines, Eastern's main competitor at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, acquired many of Eastern's Lockheed L-1011s. USAir acquired 11 of Eastern's 25 Boeing 757-225s.
Eastern pioneered hourly air shuttle service between New York City, Washington, DC and Boston in 1961 as the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle. It took over the South American route network of Braniff International in 1982 and also served London and Madrid in the 1980s.