Everybody, especially Americans love a comeback story. Sometimes though the comeback is short sighted and doesn’t pan our how your planned, just look at Lance Armstrong. In the airline business there has been no shortage of re-cooked airlines. The latest attempt was from People Express. That lasted a few short months due to poor planning and an unfortunate accident involving one of their aircraft, which they couldn’t replace causing cancelled flights. They were never able to recover after that. Now Eastern Air Lines is throwing their hat back into the ring and plans to launch charter flights from Miami to Washington DC. The airlines plans to begin offering charter flights between Miami and destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America beginning in spring 2015, with scheduled operations beginning in 2016.

Who Will Fund This Revamp

The new owners are the Eastern Airlines Group. They purchased the intellectual property, including trademarks of the original Eastern Air Lines. They announced in early 2014 that they had filed an application with the DOT and FAA for certifications. Currently they would only be allowed to fly under Part 121 charter operator with their Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Their headquarters are in the 5A Building at Miami International Airport, the previous home of the original airlines system and maintenance control centers.

The Service 

Eastern Air Lines 2nd incarnation is scheduled to begin revenue generating passenger charter operations on May 30, 2015 with a Boeing 737-800 charter flight from Miami to the Washington area, most likley into BWI. The first flight is contingent on receiving its Part 121. The first flight is slated to ban an Honor Flight bringing World War II and Korean War era veterans from South Florida to Washington and back.

On April 20, 2015 Eastern proclaimed that it had been appropriately labeled by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and “is owned by a citizen of the U.S. and is fit, willing, and able to conduct interstate and foreign air transportation of persons, property and mail as a U.S. Certificated air carrier.”

The new airline also announced on April 20 its second flight attendant class started on the same day and the next pilot class will start on May 4.

Eastern also announced that on May 4, 2015 their second flight attendant and pilot class were set to begin. hopefully they will be fully staffed by May 30th.

Great In Thought Poor In Process

For me airline revamps are all nice and fuzzy for those who use to fly those airlines back in the day, but the rarely seem to work out. When you think about it, why would they. There is a reason they failed in the first place, so why bring it back. Filene’s Basement (you might only get his reference if you are from the New England area) was a great department store back in the 80’s and 90′ but you don’t see investors trying to revive it. It can’t compete against the innovators of today like Amazon and Ebay. If you are Eastern Air Lines you have to stack up against already established, massive airlines. Even to take on the smaller players like Spirit and Sun Country will be extremely difficult. It takes a ton of money to run an airlines. If you have a small hiccup like People Express you go out of business because you don’t have the money to pay for a replacement aircraft and to keep the doors open.

Then there is the brand. Was Eastern Air Lines really that great that brand loyalty will get you off the ground in the beginning. If you are going to start an airline, why not be unique. In general I do not agree with revamping a defunct airline. For me creating your own identity and building brand loyalty would be the way to go. I hope Eastern Airlines can prove me wrong and I know a lot of people are excited for their returnl. As always if you are traveling let tripchi be your guide to the best airport experience ever. Travel On!