Eastern Air Lines is really back! First images of their first Boeing 737 “Spirit of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker” emerged on the internet today! After an absence of over two decades, the newly re-launched Eastern Air Lines will shortly start operations out of Miami International Airport (“MIA”). Their first B737 previously served with Kenya Airways as 5Y-KYB and is due to become N276EA.
More at airliners.net – Photo (c) Frankie
Edward J. Wegel, the president and CEO of the new Eastern Airlines is an airline/aerospace executive with nearly 30 years of industry experience, working for carriers including Pan Am, Atlantic Coast Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines, Tower Airlines and Mesa Air Group. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and received his MBA in finance from the University of Northern Colorado.
In an exclusive interview with airwaysnews.com, he shared some insight on the new Eastern with us: “The original Eastern Airlines shut down in January 1991. Think of all the changes in the airline industry since, including the creation of low-cost carriers and ultra low-cost carriers, along with all the legacy carriers going through bankruptcy. We respect the past and the name, along with where it operated and its philosophy. So we want to bring it back with newer aircraft, the Boeing 737-800, in our fleet.
When our first aircraft arrives in December, we will pay homage to the past, especially with who the aircraft will be named after. We want to create a business that’s in line with what everyone has learned in the past 20 years with things like fuel hedging and handling maintenance. Eastern will be modernized, but still pay homage it its legacy. We’ve all learned so much since deregulation and since the original Eastern shut down.”
Read the full interview at http://airwaysnews.com/blog/2014/11/05/qa-with-eastern-airlines-ceo-ed-wegel/