Provincetown-Boston Airlines - Beyond PBA

Beyond PBA

After the Eastern Airlines strike in March 1989, the company rebranded the PBA/Bar Harbor flights in New England and Florida from Eastern Express back to Continental Express, practically overnight, in order to keep the routes flying. Continental ticket stock was shipped out to the stations, and Continental trainers were deployed to teach the Eastern Express ground staff how to use Continental's reservations/check-in systems. As Eastern came back to life, the parent company decided to operate the PBA/Bar Harbor routes under what may have been one of the first dual codeshare agreements in the airline industry. Flights were now branded as both Continental Express and Eastern Express, and were sold in both systems under both the EA and CO airline codes. Employees joked about how long it took to answer the phone ("thank you for calling Continental Express/Eastern Express/Bar Harbor/PBA").

Continental then began the process of consolidating its four commuter carriers (PBA, Bar Harbor, Britt, Rocky Mountain) into one consolidated Continental Express carrier, serving its main hubs at Newark, Houston, and Denver. The combined carrier operated using the Britt Airways operating certificate. In the consolidation, PBA's Florida routes were spun off to Eastern Airlines, and continued to operate using Bar Harbor Airways aircraft and operating certificate as Eastern Express until the demise of Eastern Airlines. The PBA hubs at Boston and LaGuardia continued to operate for a little while longer.

In early 1991, Continental increased flights and destinations at LaGuardia airport after the shutdown of Eastern Airlines, and also increased the number of Continental Express flights and destinations at the airport. But after the end of the summer season in 1991, Continental decided to close the former PBA hubs at Boston and LaGuardia. Because some of the routes were operated under the federal Essential Air Service program, replacement service had to be obtained before the government would allow Continental to abandon some of the routes, most notably service to Martha's Vineyard, Bar Harbor ME, and Rockland, ME. An agreement was reached where Cape Air would operate year round service between Boston and Martha's Vineyard, and Continental Express would continue to operate seasonal service from Newark to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and Hyannis. Colgan Air picked up the routes from Boston to Maine. This then permitted Continental to completely close the Continental Express hubs at Boston and LaGuardia, as well as the PBA maintenance hangar and regional offices in Hyannis.

Cape Air slowly began adding other former PBA routes, and today greatly resembles PBA, operating service to former PBA destinations in both New England and Florida, and also occupies the former PBA hangar in Hyannis. Today, Cape Air operates many of the former PBA Cessna 402 aircraft and also two of the former PBA ATR-42 as Continental Connection carrier in Guam. Van Arsdale Sr (Old Man Van as he was affectionately called) even had a seat on the board of Cape Air until his death.

PBA's ATR-42s continued to operate flights for Continental Express in Newark for a number of years. Eventually, Continental retired the ATR-42s in favor of regional jets. Continental eventually spun off Continental Express into a private company, renamed ExpressJet Airlines. The only PBA route that continues to be operated today by Continental/United Express on a seasonal basis is Nantucket-Newark, operated by CommutAir with a de Havilland Dash 8.