Eastern: Never a Merger

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On 10/16/2002 8:48:11 PM phllax wrote:

Am I correct in thinking that off all of the major's that have existed at 1 point in time, that Eastern was never involved in a merger in the jet age?
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Sorry, incorrect.
Two smaller carriers merged into EA during the 'jet age' (post-1960): Mackey (Florida-Bahamas routes) around 1967, and, more importantly, Caribair in 1971. This latter merger greatly expanded Eastern's presence in the Caribbean.
Going back to the mid-'50s, Eastern swallowed up another of the original 'trunk' carriers, Colonial. This gave Eastern the NYC-Montreal route, routes to Bermuda, and other routes in the Northeast.
 
Didnt Eastern have sort of a mini hub in PHL.I remember flights on EA to ALB BUF BOS YUL all feeding ATL and MCO MIA.
 
EAL was the primary tenant of Terminal C before the strike. CO also had 2 gates. They flew the Tri-star and Airbus into PHL on flights to FLA, ATL, and New England. YYZ and YUL were also EAL authorities. They went to Midway then to US. Before those US flew to YUL via BOS and YYZ via BUF.
 
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On 10/17/2002 4:23:06 PM jj wrote:

Didnt Eastern have sort of a mini hub in PHL.I remember flights on EA to ALB BUF BOS YUL all feeding ATL and MCO MIA.
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Yes, in the '80s they did. Along with another 'hublet' at MCI.
 
I wouldnt call it a minihub..EAL had pretty much all of C terminal and it was a full hub, second to ATL, but I wouldnt classify it as a minihub...Midway #1 took it over in the restructuring and then it folded (late 1991)and USAir swooped in and bought out the gates when it went into bankruptcy liquidation..
 
PHL was a mini-hub for EAL....CLT was also , but to a much smaller degree. During the days prior to the new CLT terminal being built....and PI moving in and making it thier hub , EAL was the dominant carrier in CLT. EAL DC-9-30's were everywhere. The standing joke during the late 60's and 70's in CLT was..There is no getting there from here, except through ATL I flew on EAL from AUS to CLT direct in 1979...I also made my last flight on EAL from CLT to PHL in the winter of 1981. This was the first leg of my journey to Mcguire AFB....and then to a DC-8 (MAC Charter) on Flying Tigers to FRA (Rhien-Main AFB). This was also my last flight from the old CLT terminal....and the last time ever walking up a DC-9's forward airstairs. Those were some great days.
 
I did forget another connection between CLT and EAL...Up until the final days of EAL, they maintained a very large Reservations Center here. The figures were in the nieghborhood of 500 Employee's worked there. Needless to say...that was a real loss to the CLT Economy. PI's Res-Centers were located in INT...and likely paid less than EAL did. I'm not crying over spilled milk , but losing good paying jobs in any area has it's impacts. Thankfully PI and later US made up for EAL's departure...I only hope the continue to do so!!!
 
JI Guy said:
I wouldnt call it a minihub..EAL had pretty much all of C terminal and it was a full hub, second to ATL, but I wouldnt classify it as a minihub...Midway #1 took it over in the restructuring and then it folded (late 1991)and USAir swooped in and bought out the gates when it went into bankruptcy liquidation..
Sorry, but PHL wasn't a full hub, nor was it even CLOSE to being EA's number two after ATL (that honor went to MIA). PHL could, at best, be considered a mini-hub, or perhaps even a "focus city," if you will.

EA's largest operations were as follows:

1. ATL
2. MIA
3. MCI (when operated as a hub)
4. SJU
5. LGA
6. JFK
7. BOS
8. DCA
9. PHL
10. three way tie between EWR/MCO/IAH
 
I beleive EAL also operated a very small "hub-let" from IAH for a short time, including an Express operator. I recall that at one point it was operated primarily as a red-eye operation, with red-eyes to SEA, LAX, LGA, etc, similar to America West's LAS operation (then and now).