What Happened to Eastern Airlines?
According to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, Eastern Airlines was one of the largest U.S. airlines between the 1930s and the 1980s. The airline eventually stopped doing business in 1991 after it accumulated too much debt to operate.Early HistoryEastern Airlines began as Pitcairn Aviation in September 1927. By 1930, Pitcairn had been renamed Eastern Air Transport and was managed by World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker.ExpansionIn the 1960s Eastern began flying to the Bahamas and the U.S. West Coast. The airline also began service to the Caribbean when it purchased a Puerto Rican airline called Caribair.Jet AgeIn 1964, Eastern became the first of the large U.S. airlines to begin using the Boeing 727 jetliner. Eastern was also the first U.S. airline to order Airbus jets in 1978.LossesThe airline began to have financial problems in the 1980s due to further expansion in the 1970s as well as disagreement among the company labor unions. In 1985, Frank Lorenzo, an airline buyer
