Eastern Airlines plans fleet expansion

Eastern Airlines has filed for permission from the US Department of Transport to expand its fleet to eighteen (operational) aircraft, which currently consists of nine flying aircraft.

One of the additions to the fleet will be three B777-200ERs that the airline already acquired last year and hopes to start deploying later this year. All three are currently at Kansas City (MS) where they are being prepared for service. Next to this, Eastern Airlines is planning to venture into the cargo-carrying business as well and plans to add two B777-200 freighters. However, in an interview with the airline's CEO, he also mentioned the B777-300ERSF as an interesting option.

With the new aircraft, the airline wants to expand its flights and plans to offer/increase flights from Boston (MS), Los Angeles (CA), Miami (FL), New York-JFK (NY) and Philapelphia (PA) to destinations in Canada, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador. Guyana and Paraguay.

The current Eastern Airlines is the third company carrying the famous brand. The first (original one) existed between 1926 and 1991. The second one, a charter-airline operated between 2015 and 2017. The airline that's running today was originally founded as Dynamic Airways in 2010 and rebranded to Eastern Airlines in 2018 after a Chapter 11 reorganisation. It has a fleet of fourteen registered aircraft, consisting of five B767-200(ER)s (one parked), six B767-300(ER)s (one parked) and three B777-200ERs.

Curiously, in January of this year, a B747-400F has been registered with a registration ending with "KW", which is how almost all Eastern Airlines-aircraft have been registered. The aircraft, N251KW (25152) is registered to Alta Holdings, but it's also present at Kansas City (MS) just like the airline's three B777-200ERs. The press-release of Eastern Airlines outlining its expansion plans, however, doesn't mention the Jumbo at all.

Photo by Eastern Airlines.