With the recent rebirth of Eastern Airlines, nostalgia about carrier that was during my childhood the largest airline in the free world has resurfaced.
Eastern Airlines was from the 1920’s until the 1980’s the primary airline transporting people to/from Florida In the days of airline regulation, Eastern was awarded the bulk of lucrative north/south routes from Florida. In 1972 over 35% of state’s population lived in Southeast Florida and Disney World had just opened. Tampa was still a much more important destination than Orlando, and the bulk of traffic coming in and out of the state used Tampa International or the two major airports in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area (which at the time was recognized as a single airline market by the Civil Aeronautics Board with “co-terminals”, Miami International and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International) . Small airports like Vero Beach and Titusville still received jet service (neither airport even receives scheduled commuter service anymore) thanks to the airlines being regulated and told where and when to fly to locales.
Eastern’s entire Florida December 1972 flight schedule is below:
Daytona Beach 11 daily flights
Atlanta 4 X
Jacksonville 5 X
Miami 1 X
Orlando 1 X
Fort Lauderdale 45 daily flights
Atlanta 4X
Baltimore 2X
Boston 1X
Buffalo 1X
Chicago 4X
Cincinnati 1X
Cleveland 1X
Detroit 1X
Hartford 1X
Melbourne 1X
Nassau 2X
Newark 3X
New York – LGA 5X
New York – JFK 4X
Orlando 1X
Philadelphia 2X
Pittsburgh 2X
Tampa 8X
Washington – IAD 1X
Gainesville 2 daily flights
Atlanta 2X
Jacksonville 19 daily flights
Atlanta 7X
Chicago 1X
Daytona Beach 5X
Fort Lauderdale 1X
Melbourne 1X
Miami 1X
New York – LGA 2X
Washington – DCA 1X
Melbourne 8 daily flights
Atlanta 4X
Fort Lauderdale 1X
Jacksonville 1X
Miami 1X
Orlando 1X
Tampa 1X
Miami 93 daily flights
Atlanta 7X
Baltimore 3X
Birmingham 1X
Boston 3X
Charlotte 1X
Chicago 3X
Cleveland 1X
Columbus 1x
Dallas/FW 2X
Daytona Beach 1X
Detroit 2X
Freeport 4X
Gainseville 1X
Hartford 2X
Jacksonville 1X
Melbourne 1X
Milwaukee 1X
Minneapolis/SP 1X
Nassau 7X
New Orleans 1X
Newark 3X
New York-LGA 7X
New York -JFK 7X
Orlando 4X
Philadelphia 5X
Pittsburgh 3X
Providence 1X
Raleigh/Durham 1X
St Louis 2X
St Thomas 2X
San Juan 4X
Sarasota 1X
Syracuse 1X
Tampa 4X
Washington-DCA 4X
Orlando 29 daily flights
Atlanta 6X
Boston 1X
Chicago 2X
Cincinnati 1X
Cleveland 1X
Fort Lauderdale 1X
Huntsville 1X
Indianapolis 1X
Miami 4X
Newark 1X
New York – LGA 1X
New York -JFK 3X
Philadelphia 1X
Sarasota/Bradenton 1X
Titusville 1X
Washington-DCA 1X
West Palm Beach 2X
Pensacola 10 daily flights
Atlanta 7X
Birmingham 2X
Mobile 1X
Sarasota/Bradenton 9 daily flights
Atlanta 3X
Chicago 2X
Miami 2X
New York – JFK 1X
Orlando 1X
Tallahassee 9 daily flights
Atlanta 5X
Tampa 3X
West Palm Beach 1X
Tampa/St Pete (Tampa Int’l) 43 daily flights
Atlanta 5X
Baltimore 1X
Boston 2X
Chicago 1X
Cleveland 1X
Columbus 1X
Dallas/FW 1X
Detroit 3X
Ft Lauderdale 8X
Hatrford 1X
Miami 4X
Newark 1X
New York -LGA 1X
New York- JFK 3X
Phildelphia 1X
Pittsburgh 1X
St Louis 1X
Tallahassee 3X
Washington-DCA 2X
West Palm Beach 2X
Titusville/Cocoa 1 daily flight
Orlando 1X
Vero Beach 2 daily flights
Miami 1X
Tampa 1X
West Palm Beach 17 daily flights
Atlanta 3X
Fort Lauderdale 1X
Miami 2X
Newark 1X
New York -LGA 1X
New York -JFK 2X
Orlando 2X
Philadelphia 1X
Tallahassee 1X
Tampa 2X
Washington -DCA 1X
“Boeing 747-121 N735PA EAL lsd MIA 07.02.71 edited-2” by RuthAS – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boeing_747-121_N735PA_EAL_lsd_MIA_07.02.71_edited-2.jpg#/media/File:Boeing_747-121_N735PA_EAL_lsd_MIA_07.02.71_edited-2.jpg
The Florida Squeeze 
Eastern was never the same after Eddie Rickenbacker was forced out in 1963.
Oh my, am I old enough to remember when he ran Eastern? Eddie was an uneducated George S. Patton, Jr. and instinctively did the right thing at the right time and in the right way.
I recommend a biography of Rickenbacker’s life by W. David Lewis (“Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century” published 5/28/2008). Check your local library or a book seller..
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[…] For many years Eastern was the undisputed leader in flights to Florida. Then following Atlanta-based Delta’s merger with Northeast Airlines in 1972, a robust and intense competition between Eastern and Delta broke out. At the time of the Delta-Northeast merger, Eastern flew to the most cities in Florida and had large operations at Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale… […]
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[…] For many years Eastern was the undisputed leader in flights to Florida. Then following Atlanta-based Delta’s merger with Northeast Airlines in 1972, a robust and intense competition between Eastern and Delta broke out. At the time of the Delta-Northeast merger, Eastern flew to the most cities in Florida and had large operations at Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale… […]
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