1970’s Florida growth and how two Florida-based airlines contributed

The 1970’s were a glory era in Florida politically and economically. Tourism and job growth exploded while the economy diversified.

With visionary leaders like Governor Reubin Askew, the state projected an image of efficiency, smart growth, environmental consciousness and most of all paradise to the rest of the country.

One company that benefited from Florida’s robust growth and in-turn was responsible for many of the tourist dollars spent in the state from across the US and Europe was the often forgotten National Airlines.

Miami based National Airlines, was the largest east-west carrier from the Florida and the second largest north-south carried from Florida (behind Eastern Airlines) prior to Airline Deregulation in 1978. Immediately, after deregulation two giant carriers both with a large Miami operations sought to purchase National. Eastern, which at the time was the 2nd largest airline in the free world was also based in Miami and was primarily a north-south carrier proposed to merge with National. The merger would have given Eastern the transcontinental routes it had long lacked and increased flights to Florida and Southeast.

Pan Am, which was forbidden from carrying domestic passengers prior to deregulation also sought a merger with National. Later in the game, Texas International owned by Frank Lorezno upped the price for the airline so that when Pan Am finally bought the airline, it had overpaid dramatically.

Pan Am wanted National for its large domestic operation out of Miami, which was Pan Am’s primary hub for flights to Latin America (as it had been for PA’s Caribbean operation prior to the 1975 route swaps with American and TWA) as well as the feed NA could provide for Pan Am’s European and African ops from New York’s JFK Airport.

Pan Am often fancied itself as the US’ flag carrier but National viewed itself as the same for Florida. The marriage was a disaster. The corporate cultures never meshed. More on that another time (this has cultural significance beyond the airline world imo).

Below is National’s Florida nonstop schedule from the last timetable before the Pan Am merger.

FORT LAUDERDALE

To: Houston 3x daily
Los Angeles 1x daily
Miami 5x daily
New Orleans 1x daily
Newark 3x daily
New York-LaGuardia 6 x daily
West Palm Beach 2x daily

21 daily departures

FORT MYERS

To: Miami 2x daily
New York-Kennedy 1x daily
Orlando 1x daily
Sarasota 1x daily
Tampa 2x daily

7 daily departures

JACKSONVILLE

To: Houston 1x daily
Miami 1x daily
New Orleans 1x daily
Norfolk 1x daily
Orlando 1x daily
Savannah 1x daily
Washington- National 1x daily

7 daily departures

MIAMI

To: Amsterdam 1x weekly
Fort Lauderdale 5x daily
Fort Myers 2x daily
Frankfurt 5x weekly
Houston 5x daily
Jacksonville 1x daily
London-Heathrow 1x daily
Los Angeles 4x daily
New Orleans 4x daily
Newark 2x daily
New York-Kennedy 3x daily
New York-LaGuardia 5x daily
Orlando 3x daily
Paris-Orly 3x weekly
San Francisco 1x daily
San Juan 2x daily
Sarasota 1x daily
Tampa 5x daily
Washington-National 2x daily
West Palm Beach 3x daily
Zurich 1x weekly

(Average) 48 daily departures

ORLANDO

To: Fort Lauderdale 1x daily
Fort Myers 1x daily
Houston 3x daily
Jacksonville 1x daily
Miami 2x daily
Newark 1x daily
New York-Kennedy 2x daily
Sarasota 1x daily
Washington-National 3x daily
West Palm Beach 1x daily

16 daily departures

PENSACOLA

To: Mobile 2x daily
New Orleans 2x daily

4 daily departures

SARASOTA/BRADENTON

To: Ft Myers 1x daily
Miami 1x daily
Newark 1x daily
New York-Kennedy 1x daily
Orlando 1x daily
Tampa 2x daily

7 daily departures

TAMPA/ST PETE

To: Amsterdam 1x weekly
Ft Myers 1x
Houston 3x daily
Los Angeles 2x daily
Miami 5x daily
New Orleans 3x daily
New York-LaGuardia 2x daily
New York-Kennedy 1x daily
Orlando 1x daily
Sarasota 2x daily
Washington-National 2x daily

(average) 21 daily departures

WEST PALM BEACH

To: Fort Lauderdale 2x daily
Miami 3x daily
Newark 1x daily
New York-LaGuardia 2x daily
New York-Kennedy 2x daily
Orlando 1x daily
Washington-National 3x daily

14 daily departures

Another company that was critical to Florida’s growth, perhaps more critical was Eastern. The airline was based in New York but in 1975 moved its headquarters to Miami. From 1968 to 1985 Eastern was one of the two largest airlines in the non-communist world.

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.

Eastern served 15 Florida destinations in 1970. Below is a list of where Eastern flew from Florida, in a timetable from 1970.

Keep in mind this is BEFORE the hub & spoke concept had begun and during the era of airline regulation so while Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami and New York effectively served as Eastern hubs, a lot of unique point-to-point flights were flown and some obvious routes from so-called hubs (Like Miami to Los Angeles which Eastern spent the whole decade trying to get authority to fly) were not because they were property of other airlines during the highly-regulated 1970’s in US aviation.

Eastern had an extensive South Florida-Bahamas route network in 1970, though West Palm Beach-West End and Nassau were no longer flow at this point and Freeport had replaced it as a nonstop destination. All three Bahamian destinations were served nonstop from both Miami and Fort Lauderdale at the time.

Also in 1970 Eastern carried more passengers to Florida than all other airlines combined. This hold on Florida traffic would erode throughout the 1970’s thanks to National and Delta growing.

Daytona Beach

Atlanta, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando

Fort Lauderdale

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago-O’Hare, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Freeport, Hartford/Springfield, Nassau, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Tampa, West End, West Palm Beach

Gainesville

Jacksonville, Ocala

Jacksonville

Atlanta, Augusta, Chicago-O’Hare, Daytona Beach, Gainesville, New York-LaGuardia, Orlando, Titusville/Cocoa, Washington-National

Melbourne

Atlanta, Miami, Orlando

Miami

Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago-O’Hare, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth, Daytona Beach, Detroit, Freeport, Greensboro, Hartford/Springfield, Indianapolis, Melbourne, Nassau, New Orleans, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, Raleigh/Durham, St Louis, St Thomas, San Juan, Tampa, Titusville/Cocoa, Toronto, Vero Beach, Washington-Dulles, Washington-National, West End, West Palm Beach

Ocala

Gainesville, Vero Beach

Orlando

Atlanta, Chicago-O’Hare, Daytona Beach, Huntsville, Jacksonville, Melbourne, Miami, New Orleans, New York-JFK, Philadelphia, Tallahassee, Titusville/Cocoa, Washington-National

NOTE: When Walt Disney World opened the next year and Eastern was named “Official Airline of Walt Disney World,” Orlando service increased dramatically.

Pensacola

Atlanta, Birmingham, Montgomery

Sarasota/Bradenton

Atlanta, Chicago-O’Hare, Syracuse, Tampa

Tallahassee

Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach

Tampa/St Petersburg/Clearwater (Tampa Int’l)

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago-O’Hare, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Louisville, Miami, New York-JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Washington-National, West Palm Beach

Titusville/Cocoa

Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando

Vero Beach

Miami, Ocala

West Palm Beach

Atlanta, Chicago-O’Hare, Fort Lauderdale, Freeport, Miami, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Tallahassee, Tampa, Washington-National