Eastern Provincial Airways, also known as EPA, was the backbone of air travel in the eastern atlantic provinces of Canada in the 1970s. At its peak, the carrier operated jet service with Boeing 737-200 aircraft connecting many communities that today only have scheduled passenger flights provided by 18-seat commuter turboprop aircraft. The airline traces its history from Maritime Central Airways (MCA) from 1961. It merged with CP Air to form Canadian Pacific Airlines in 1986.

Eastern Provincial Airways began operations from St. John's, Newfoundland in 1949. Early services, like those of MCA, included a mixed bag of ambulance and mail services, cargo, charters, and forest and ice patrols - hardly a hint of the modern carrier that would emerge scarcely twenty years later. The company was founded with a Norseman aircraft by Eric Blackwood, a bush pilot and Royal Canadian Air Force veteran from World War II. Blackwood had the backing of St. John's businessman C.A. Crosbie.

The purchase of a PBY Canso amphibian aircraft in 1953 allowed EPA to take larger charter jobs, and a converted Canso allowed water-bombing flights on behalf of the government. In 1954, EPA moved its headquarters from St. John's to the now bustling international aviation hub in Gander where EPA planes mingled with the likes of Pan American and BOAC en route to or from Europe. But EPA's work still consisted mostly of a wide variety of government contracts. In Gander, EPA set up administrative offices and a maintenance hangar and with the addition of larger Douglas DC-3s and Lockheed Model 10 Electra twin prop aircraft, commenced regular passenger services between St. John's, Gander and Deer Lake in 1955-56. In addition to regional charter work, international projects were operated as well, including a contract beginning in 1958 to do extensive work in Greenland with PBY Cansos and de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otters for Greenland Air until July 1965.

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