Growth Under Rickenbacker
In 1938 the airline was purchased by World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker from General Motors. The complex deal was concluded when Rickenbacker presented Alfred P. Sloan with a certified check for $3.5 million. Rickenbacker pushed Eastern into a period of prodigious growth and innovation. For a time, Eastern was the most profitable airline in the post-war era, never needing state subsidy. In the late 1950s Eastern's position was eroded by state subsidies to rival airlines, increasing industry regulation and the arrival of the jet age. Rickenbacker's position as CEO was taken over by Malcolm A. MacIntyre, 'a brilliant lawyer but a man inexperienced in airline operations'. on October 1, 1959. His ouster was due largely to his reluctance to acquire jets, feeling that they were unnecessary and expensive. A new management team headed by Floyd D. Hall took over the operation on 16 December 1963, and Rickenbacker left his position as Director and Chairman of the Board on December 31, 1963, aged 73.
By the 1950s, Eastern's aircraft were prominent up and down the East Coast of the United States. In 1956 the airline purchased Canadian airline Colonial Airlines, which gave the airline its first service to Canada.
Read more about this topic: Eastern Air Lines, History
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