Would-Be New Eastern Air Lines Begins DOT and FAA Certification Process

Eastern Air Lines Group, Inc. has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to operate as a passenger airline.

If Eastern Air Lines Group, Inc. is successful in its application, it expects to begin soon the process of FAA certification as a passenger airline under Part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.

If successful in obtaining certification from the U.S. Department of Transportation and FAA as a passenger airline, the new Eastern Air Lines would retain the same logo and colors as the original Eastern Air Lines. However, the two companies are not legally affiliated

According to the company, it has retained legal counsel and consultants for this purpose. The new carrier would be called Eastern Air Lines.

“We are honored to have the opportunity to launch an airline bearing the iconic Eastern Air Lines name,” says Edward Wegel, Eastern’s president and CEO. “We have recruited a world-class board of directors and a highly experienced management team to guide and lead this effort.”

Although Eastern Air Lines Group, Inc. is not affiliated with the former Eastern Air Lines, which operated from 1928 to 1991 as one of the largest U.S. domestic carriers and had a large network to Caribbean and Latin American destinations, the company was specifically formed to re-launch the Eastern Air Lines name as a passenger airline.

In 2009, a professional group of airline managers acquired the intellectual property of Eastern Air Lines to develop a new business plan and financing plan to re-launch the airline.

That work has begun and is being led by certification consultant Locked On, according to Eastern Air Lines Group, Inc.

Like the original Eastern Air Lines, the new Eastern would be based at Miami International Airport (IATA code MIA). It would operate leased Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 single-aisle jets.

This is an artist’s impression of an Airbus A319 in the colors of Eastern Air Lines, a new company legally unaffiliated with the original Eastern Air Lines but which was formed to re-launch the Eastern Air Lines name. The new company would christen its first aircraft “Spirit of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker”. The new Eastern expected its first aircraft, a leased A319, to be delivered to Eastern in summer 2014. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was a U.S. Army Air Corps fighter ace in World War 1. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor and went on to become owner and CEO of Eastern Air Lines from 1935 to 1963

The new Eastern says it is working with various aircraft leasing companies to assemble a fleet of Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft.

Eastern Air Lines Group, Inc.’s headquarters is located in Building 5A at Miami International Airport. This four-story building at the corner of LeJeune and 36th Street was the former Eastern Operations Center, once housing all of Eastern Air Lines’ system control and maintenance control centers, and other operating units.

The new Eastern’s management team says it has established working relationships with strategic partners. These include the Miami-Dade Aviation Department (which operates MIA), Amadeus and Airbus, according to Eastern Air Lines Group, Inc.

According to the new Eastern, the original Eastern’s relationship with Amadeus dates back to Eastern’s reservation system, called System One. This system was eventually sold by Eastern and later became the core of the Amadeus system.

The original Eastern had a relationship with Airbus dating back to 1972, when Eastern became a launch airline customer for the Airbus A300.