Continental Airlines
On February 1, 1987, People Express completed the merger with Continental Airlines, and PBA's fate again came into question. Continental enjoyed having the PBA feeder flights at Newark, operating the flights now with the Continental Express name. Additional service was added as Continental Express with PBA's EMB-110s from Newark to Binghamton, NY, New Haven, CT and Baltimore, MD.
Texas Air also owned Eastern Airlines in addition to Continental, and Eastern had a codeshare relationship with Bar Harbor Airlines in Florida and New England. Continental also owned Britt Airways from the People Express Merger,and Rocky Mountain Airways of Denver. While Bar Harbor's New England routes did not overlap PBA's, the Florida routes were in direct competition, and Continental was investing in Bar Harbor through airplane purchases.
In April 1988, Continental acquired majority interest in Bar Harbor Airlines and began consolidating Bar Harbor with PBA. PBA flight crews started operating the new Bar Harbor Airlines ATR-42s from Hyannis to La Guardia and Newark. PBA's Cessna 402 airplanes started appearing on some Bar Harbor Airlines routes, such as Hartford/Bradley to New York/La Guardia. Because of the larger presence of Eastern Airlines in Boston and LaGuardia, PBA's flights to/from Boston and LaGuardia were rebranded as Eastern Express in 1988. (Texas Air Corporation controlled both Continental Airlines and Eastern Airlines.) Most of the classic DC-3s were repainted from PBA colors to the Eastern Express livery. Ironically, many of the PBA DC-3s were originally built for and operated as Eastern Airlines decades earlier. Florida flights were all now being operated with Bar Harbor's SAAB 340s, Beech 1900s, and Beech 99s as Eastern Express, while the PBA fleet was consolidated back in the Northeast for the last summer.
Read more about this topic: Provincetown-Boston Airlines