Everything You Need To Know About Eastern Airlines
If one were to ask what the three US airlines which operate scheduled commercial flights that operate Boeing 767s, I’m sure most would guess United and Delta, both of which do operate the 767. However, I’m sure that most probably wouldn’t guess that the third US airline (operating scheduled commercial operations) that operates the 767 is Eastern Airlines, which I would guess is an airline 99% of Americans have never heard of, at least in its current iteration. Eastern Airlines is back, this time in it’s third iteration; in this article, I’ll explore the history of Eastern, along with where the new airline will operate and whether it is viable in the long-term.
Some Background On The Original Eastern Air Lines
For those of you who don’t know, the original Eastern Air Lines was an airline that operated starting in 1926 and was among the largest of the US airlines. The original Eastern Air Lines operated a sizable fleet, being among the largest airlines in the US for decades, operating dozens of Boeing 727s and DC-9s in its prime, as well as wide-body jets such as the Lockheed L-1011 and the Airbus A300. Eastern Air Lines also was the first airline to operate a shuttle service between Washington, New York, and Boston; Eastern Air Lines Shuttle was founded in 1961 and ran shuttle flights between the three cities.
Eastern Air Lines Shuttle was sold in 1988 when it was sold and rebranded as the Trump Shuttle, where a certain businessman ran it into the ground after three years and sold it to US Air and was rebranded again as the USAir (later US Airways) Shuttle until US Airways was bought by American Airlines in 2013, where the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle remains today in it’s current incarnation as the American shuttle.
Eastern Airlines itself also operated a fair amount of long-haul operations, with it’s long-haul operations having been primarily located out of Miami, where it flew to cities such as Sao Paulo and Santiago, along with a short-lived service to London Gatwick. Ultimately, Eastern went bankrupt in 1989 and stopped flying in 1991.
However, this article isn’t about the original Eastern Air Lines–since then, there have been two new iterations of Eastern Airlines, including one operating a variety of routes in the present, which all together makes quite an interesting story.
2009-2017: Eastern Air Lines 2.0
In 2009, a group of investors bought the intellectual property that was Eastern Air Lines, in hopes of reclaiming Eastern to the glory it once was, under the official name of the Eastern Airlines Group. Starting an airline is not something that can be done overnight, and the creation of the second Eastern Air Lines certainly didn’t happen overnight: Eastern finally regained it’s Air Operators’ Certificate in 2015 and soon after acquired six Boeing 737s, of which 5 were of the -800 model and one was of the -700 model. Eastern painted it’s aircraft in the iconic logo of the previous airlines, a nod to the long-standing airline which had been gone for nearly 25 years. In 2015, Eastern began scheduled charter flights to Cuba, which became the main market which it operated to. Eastern’s main business was charter operations, which were not limited to Cuba; interestingly, it operated Mike Pence’s plane during the 2016 election, which famously skid off of the runway at LaGuardia.
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Also interestingly, Eastern had placed orders for 10 Boeing 737 MAXs, along with 20 Mitsubishi MRJ-90s, ordered in 2014, though three years after the airlines’ demise, the MRJ still hasn’t entered commercial service. Unfortunately, Eastern failed to make a profit, and the assets (including the Eastern Airlines name) of the airline were acquired by Swift Air in 2017, another charter airline that exclusively operates Boeing 737s.
A New Buyer Of The Eastern Name
As stated earlier, in 2017, Swift Air acquired the Eastern Air Lines intellectual property, along with some of the 2015 airlines’ asserts. Swift Air, like Eastern Air Lines 2.0, is a charter airline which doesn’t operate commercial services. Most of its charter flights seem to be out of Miami, though it’s headquarters is in Greensboro (NC). A (not-so) fun fact about Swift Air is that it seems to largely do contract flights for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), so, well, now you know which airline does all of that. Interestingly, Swift Air never actually rebranded as Eastern Airlines, but rebranded to iAero Airways in 2019 when they were bought by the iAero Group, which I personally think is a weird and partially redundant name.
Anyways, enter Dynamic Airways (later known as Dynamic International Airways), which had been a charter airline operating since 2010 in the United States and exclusively operated 767s (including the -200 and -300 variants). Dynamic operated almost exclusively charter flights, though they did operate a couple of commercial flights from New York to the Caribbean in the mid-2010s. In 2017, Dynamic went entered bankruptcy, though fortunately they were able to restructure and exit bankruptcy successfully and continued with their business model in operating exclusively charter flights.
The New Eastern Airlines
However, in 2018, Dynamic obtained all of the intellectual property of Eastern Airlines from Swift Air. Apparently, a man named Kenneth Woolley post-bankruptcy became the sole owner of Dynamic Airways, though he also owns a minority stake in Swift Air, so in a sense I guess they are “sister” airlines (which makes some sense, as they operate with similar business models, though one exclusively operates narrow-body aircraft and the other operates only wide-bodies).
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Dynamic did in fact rebrand as Eastern in 2018, though it’s not like they really bought it from Swift; Swift had just bought the assets of Eastern 2.0 but never really wanted to rebrand, so I guess they were just willing to give it to Dynamic, due to having a common owner (or in Swift’s case, co-owner). After they acquired the name, Eastern Airlines (not Air Lines, like the previous two) LCC (the official name of the new airline) made it clear that they intended to operate commercial flights, not just charter flights, which they ultimately ended up doing in early 2020, which I’ll get to more in-depth later.
Along with the rebranding, Eastern introduced a new livery onboard its aircraft, though it did paint (at least) one aircraft in the original Eastern Air Lines livery, along with a couple in a hybrid Swift Air livery. While they retained the original Eastern airplane widget in their livery, the overall livery doesn’t look anything like the iconic livery which Eastern 1.0 and 2.0 shared, with the “hockey stick” livery. Instead, their livery is all-white, with Eastern written out in big letters on the fuselage, with ‘artwork’ which also serves as its main logo. I find it quite…odd (and not anything like the old Eastern), with the new logo being on its tail and engines (which they describe as being “inspired by our rich and iconic history, and our future of being an “Explorer” brand is modeled after topographical maps”).
I personally don’t hate the livery, though I don’t quite get why they introduced a completely new livery and brand while keeping the Eastern name. Weirdly, they painted a couple of aircraft in an interim old Eastern blue “hockey stick” livery, though they didn’t actually paint the tail of the aircraft, only the fuselage.
Eastern didn’t operate a single commercial flight in 2019, though they did operate charter flights, in addition to operating a few commercial flights for Sunwing in 2019 to cover for the 737 MAX groundings. However, Eastern did manage to operate their inaugural commercial flight to Guayaquil on January 12, 2020, making them (I believe) the sixth US commercial airline to operate flights to South America.
A Vintage Fleet
After the rebranding, Eastern’s fleet consisted entirely of Boeing 767s, both of the -200ER (4 aircraft) and -300ER (5 aircraft) variants, of which they have nine aircraft in total. However, their fleet is quite old: the average age of their 767s is 31.3 years; in contrast, United’s oldest 767 is not even 30 years old. For example, their oldest Boeing 767, N605KW, began operating in 1984 for Egypt Airways, making the aircraft over 36 years old! And just for some context, the Boeing 767-200/200ER is really rare nowadays; the only other commercial airlines which operate it are Air Zimbabwe, Omni Air International (a charter airline), Jordan Aviation (not Royal Air Jordanian), and Russia’s UTair. Their -300s aren’t exactly spring chickens either; their newest Boeing 767-300 is just over 26 years old, having begun operation for Shanghai Airlines in 1984; the rest of their -300s are over 28 years old.
In terms of the cabins of their 767s, I don’t believe that they have a uniform cabin on all of their aircraft, and they don’t exactly advertise their ancient aircraft on their website. However, there are two good reviews which I was able to find on the internet which give pretty good descriptions of their cabins. The first was from TPG, which reviewed their inaugural flight from JFK to Guayaquil. The aircraft appeared to have recliner seats in business class in a 2-2-2 configuration, though there was no entertainment. The aircraft appeared to be an ex-Qantas, and since four of their 767-300s are ex-Qantas, it is reasonable to inference that they retained their cabins.
The other review I was able to find was from Point Me To The Plane, which reviewed a repatriation flight which they did from Buenos Aires to Miami earlier this year. The aircraft seemingly had different interior, with angle-lie flat seats (to be more specific, they were B/E Aerospace Minipod) in business class and are far superior to the recliner product, though based on a picture of economy class, I believe that the aircraft also was ex-Qantas, so it’s possible that they installed different business class seats but kept the same economy class seats. I believe both versions of the 767-300 have 30 business class seats, so I’d have no idea how to tell which product you’re going to get.
In this tweet from the US Embassy Suriname, you can see the interior of one of their 767s, with angle-flat seats in the final photo.
In terms of the soft product, in-flight service seemed to be very limited from the two reviews which I read with food more akin to economy class, as opposed to business class (I think it’s technically called Premium Class), which was reviewed both times. So, despite getting premium economy seats, expect a soft product more like you’d get in economy class. I have no idea what the cabins are onboard their 767-200s, though I would probably expect old-style recliner seats in business class and no entertainment of any sorts in business or economy class.
In mid-2020, Eastern acquired their first non-767 aircraft: a Boeing 777-200. The aircraft (N771KW) was an ex-Singapore Airlines plane, though it seems to have been operated by Malaysia’s flyGlobal, along with Saudi airlines Nesma Airlines and flyNas over the past three years. I believe that the aircraft still has the original Singapore Airlines cabins equipped onboard, which have angle-flat seats in business class, along with personal entertainment screens at all seats. While Eastern has painted its 777 in their new livery, it seems to have stayed put in Victorville ever since they have taken delivery of it, so they haven’t actually operated any flights with it. I find it kind of odd why they’d want a Boeing 777 with their current route network, so my guess is that they got it at much below market value. The plane is 18.5 years old, making it the youngest in their fleet.
What Is Their Business Model, & Where Do They Fly To?
Eastern believes that they can survive by operating medium to long-haul routes which have been historically underserved, in addition to operating charter flights. Their hub is at New York JFK Airport, which I guess they can make a competitive advantage out of, though I do find it a bit odd that they, as a struggling airline new to commercial service, opted to operate out of the flagship airport of New York, which presumably costs the most to operated out of.
In early-2019, Eastern filed with the US DOT to fly from New York to Guayaquil (Ecuador), Georgetown (Guyana), along with Jinan (China) via Anchorage. Now, the first two actually ended up launching in early 2020, and their Jinan flight never did indeed launch. However, it did seem that they were quite seriously considering operating flights at a 2x weekly schedule to Jinan via Anchorage, where passengers could get on and off at and fly between only Anchorage and NYC/Jinan. However, this was undoubtedly kind of crazy (especially because of competition from other cheap Chinese airlines), so it seems that they came to their senses and scrapped that idea.
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Now, at that point, I actually didn’t think that they would eventually even operate commercial flights, and to be honest, I kind of dismiss them in the realm of Baltia. But, to their credit, they did indeed end up operating commercial flights, which is no small feat, especially if you plan on operating wide-body aircraft.
Their current route network is centered around flying to destinations which they deem to be underserved by other airlines, with their central focus being on flights to Latin America. Back in January, their first flight which they indeed did operate was from New York JFK to Guayaquil, which, in addition to all of its other flights, they operated using Boeing 767s. Now, I wouldn’t say that the Guayaquil to New York market is underserved, as two other airlines, LATAM and JetBlue, normally fly it, so I have doubts on how long this route will actually last, as I’m sure that most people would rather fly on JetBlue or LATAM. They seem to be operating these flights on average 2x per week.
I’m not sure when they actually started flying each of their other routes, but Eastern is currently flying four other routes to Latin America from the US, even now during the COVID pandemic. Firstly, they are also currently flying from Guayaquil to Miami, their other US base, where they have competition from American Airlines on that route. They also seem to be operating this route about 2x per week.
In addition, they are operating flights from Georgetown, Guyana (Cheddi Jagan International Airport) to both New York and Miami (using their 767s) 2x weekly (for both flights, so 4x weekly flights there in total). I don’t exactly know why they think that this route is “underserved,” as they are going head-to-head with American Airlines, Caribbean Airlines, and JetBlue for flights from New York to Georgetown, and are competing with American Airlines and Surinam Airways on their flight from New York to Miami. So I don’t really see where they think that they can offer a competitive advantage on their Guyana flights, as it’s not like it’s underserved and their prices aren’t any lower than American on both of their flights (for example, economy costs about $400 round-trip from both NYC and Miami to Georgetown on both American and Eastern).
Their final destination which they currently serve is Port-au-Prince, where they fly to from New York 2x weekly. They are only competing with JetBlue for flights from the New York area to Port-au-Prince, which flies there at least once daily, so there’s a lot of direct competition, though American, Air France, Spirit, and JetBlue all fly there from the US. Eastern’s prices do seemingly fluctuate a lot on this route; when I pulled up random dates on Google Flights, it cost $770 on one date (during the high winter season) and $330 on another, while it cost about $600 on JetBlue.
Eastern does have one route planned which it is not currently flying, which is from New York JFK to Los Cabos International Airport, which I think makes slightly more sense than their Guayaquil and Georgetown routes. Eastern will begin flying to Cabo on November 14 and will operate the route 2x weekly using a Boeing 767. Currently, no airline flies from New York JFK to Cabo, though United does on a seasonal basis from Newark and American will begin flights there in December, so they will have some competition. However, American and United only will only fly there 3-4 times weekly with American operating solely during the winter, while Eastern plans on operating year-round (though I am skeptical about that), so I guess that might give them a competitive advantage. Prices on Eastern on this route are substantially lower than on United and American; the lowest I see the nonstop flights on United and American going for in the winter season is $500, while seem to hover between $600 and $700 in December and January. However, on Eastern, tickets seem to cost between $200 and $400 from, significantly cheaper than on the two legacy carriers (though prices seem to go up higher than $600 during after February).
In addition, in the earlier stages of the COVID pandemic, Eastern has operated (and I believe continues to operate) repatriation flights form numerous destinations in South America back to the US, such as Buenos Aires and Lima, where they were accused of price gouging. Eastern also still seems to offer a fair amount of charter flights.
Will They Survive?
During the age of COVID-19, no airlines’ fate is sealed; even larger and much more established airlines are fighting for survival in this day and age. However, in normal times, I even wouldn’t be sure that Eastern would be viable in the long-term. To be honest, I have no idea what their load factors are, but based on the couple reviews I’ve read (and common sense), I would say that it isn’t much of a stretch to say that they’re probably not filling their 767s.
I mean, I don’t really see much of a purpose for why Eastern exists, as it’s not like their prices are significantly lower than other airlines, it’s not like they’re trying to differentiate themselves in terms of in-flight service, and it’s not like they’re really flying to underserved markets (as I explained in the earlier section), like they claim to be doing. It’s also not like they’re really trying to recreate Eastern 1.0, like Eastern 2.0 tried to, as the new Eastern basically shares nothing in terms of corporate identity with Eastern 1.0. So I really don’t see much reason why anyone would actually fly them, as they aren’t flying any routes which weren’t previously flown by other airlines, and they are still quite unknown.
I always route for start-up airlines and really hope that Eastern 3.0 will be able to make their commercial operations work in the long-term. It’s also not like they’re really a new airline, though their predecessor, Dynamic, did try to have a similar business model about five years ago (flying commercial flights from the US to Latin America with 767s), though they scrapped that business model in favor of operating solely charter flights. Prior to the pandemic, I could have seen that Eastern may have been able to operate commercial flights in the long-term, though with significantly fewer people flying, I just don’t see how they can viably continue to operate commercial flights for much longer, especially because they currently solely fly 767s, which aren’t cheap to operate. But then again, I really have no idea about their financial stability, so all of this is technically just speculation.
Conclusion
Eastern Airlines is back, in its third iteration and actually is operating commercial flights. Technically speaking, Eastern is one of only three US airlines operating commercial flights which operates the 767, is one of four (soon to be three) which operates the 777, and is one of six which flies to South America. Eastern currently flies to five (soon to be six) destinations around the Americas, and its main focal point is flying to underserved destinations, though I would argue that the destination which they serve, ironically, aren’t underserved at all. While I do hope that they will survive in the long-term, unlike Eastern 2.0, I unfortunately don’t have high hopes that they will be able to profitably operate commercial flights with their current business model, especially in the current COVID-19 business environment which will likely lower demand for years, if not permanently.
Featured Image Courtesy of Eastern Airlines