Why This Airline Only Has One Commercial Flight Per Month 

My parents still have an "Eastern Airlines" dog carrier from our first dog.

I also heard that this flight fulfilled the requirement for DOD charters. Apparently they need to be active enough, or have one regularly scheduled route, to be able to fly charters for the DOD which is a very lucrative business.

Eddie Rickenbacker is the most successful AMERICAN pilot in WWI. The most successful pilot overall was Manfred Von Richthofen, also known as the Red Baron, with 80 victories credited to his name.

The flight RU-vidr Noel Philips actually flew on the flight and apparently it's much more expensive than flying, say, American Airlines, between the same locations. On his flight there were only a few people on the flight, and even the flight attendants knew that they were only operating this flight to keep up their certification with the FAA.

I had a friend from school that I found out was a pilot for the revived Eastern airlines a few years ago. That was with the original Eastern look and branding. Eastern was my favorite airline growing up.

Ugh there was a period in the pandemic when this did seem super promising. They were flying to like ‘secondary cities’ across Latin America for next to nothing. Throughout most of the pandemic, I was in a long-distance relationship with someone in Uruguay, and so you can imagine my shock, when this random airline started offering direct flights to Montevideo from Miami for like $400. That was their whole model. Not Buenos Aires, but Montevideo. Not Rio, but Belo Horizonte. I wish it had lasted

That dude took “YOLO” to a whole different level.

Holy cow! I'm an American living in the Dominican Republic. I totally need to take this flight the next time I return to the states just for the experience.

Eastern Airlines had a DoD charter out of MHT in New Hampshire to El Paso. Same plane then flew to Poland

I actually saw another video about this subject a while ago, but they didn't actually get down to explaining the history. Which is why I like Half as Interesting---it keeps the viewers interest by *giving* information, not by withholding it.

This is what the British would call a "Parlimentary flight". British railways do this kind of thing on certain railway routes, just enough trains to meet legal requirements so as to avoid legal abandonment.

Somehow this is the definitive HAI video, it has everything

It used to fly to Montevideo, La Paz and Asuncion not too long ago either from Miami or NY. The Livery was colorful and it used still some 767 for those long haul.

I am sure that this video will literally fill their flights significantly more.

Eastern Airlines sounds familiar to me and then it hits me that they're the first Airbus operator in the US. Airbus leased 4 A300s for free to Eastern for a 6-month trial as Airbus was desperate to get into the US market. It was proven successful and Eastern ordered 23.

Just saw the news, Eastern Airlines got their NY Kennedy - Shanghai Pudong flight approved by USDT (4 flights a week!)

The first airplane I *remember* going on, when I was 4 or 5, was an Eastern Airlines flight NYC to Miami. The captain came out and gave me wings to pin on and everything. Air travel used to be so classy!

Nice job Sam and crew. I saw that Noel Phillips video too. Lol. But seriously, Eastern used to be a big deal. And you kind of glossed over their demise in the late 1980's. Frank Boreman, former NASA astronaut use to be their chairman and was the public face of the company for a while. It was a mechanic's union strike that was the final nail in their coffin. In Atlanta, for example, Eastern was the 2nd largest carrier. When they shut down almost overnight, it almost closed an entire concourse, left many unemployed. The airport really didn't fully rebound until other carriers started to enter the ATL market years later. Think America West, Valu-Jet, and others. ATL wouldn't get Southwest until much later.

I work at an aircraft maintenance facility in Kansas City, MO....one day this spring as I was leaving for home, I saw a plane in front of an adjacent facility (huge building, there's three different companies that occupy it) a plane all decked out in New England Patriots football team colors. After fighting off an attack of nausea and revulsion at seeing this plane here in KC, I noticed it said "Operated by Eastern Airlines" right underneath the plane's serial number near the tail (N225NE).....it's a 767 I never thought anything of it until watching this video

Can we get a HAI on Eddie Rickenbacker? Never before has a 30 second synopsis of someones life sounded so eventful!

This is a bit like Parliamentary or Ghost services in the UK. Some train services run once a day or once a week etc just to keep the line open as the cost and paper work (or they just want to keep it open) to shut it down costs more than putting on a single service every so often.

When I was five years old I flew unaccompanied the first time, and it was on Eastern, as were many of my childhood trips. I wore a little suit. The airline hung a card-stock placard around my neck. It was shaped like a teddy bear head and had a picture of a teddy bear face on one side. The other side had my name, itinerary, who was meeting me (Mom), contact information for my parents, and an Eastern logo. I last saw it just a few years ago. I might still have it.

For a moment, when I saw the video thumbnail, I was confused why the map was showing a flight from Singapore to Yogyakarta. Didn’t realize that there was another spot in the world with similar geography!

A couple weeks ago, Noel Philips flew on this flight to Santo Domingo.

Man, remember when Eastern used to be the main airline for Disney? Good times.

I flew an Eastern 767 in 2020 from Argentina to Miami. It was during the start of the pandemic and I was informed by the US embassy in Buenos Aires about this flight. Not sure if th embassy chartered the flight but the ticket was like twice normal price.

Funny this came up; last week I was at a local Air Reserve base and saw...an Eastern Airlines jet. 😳 Thought I'd slipped a cam at first, but found there really is an Eastern Airlines in existence.

My conspiracy is that they're making Epstein island 2 to distract us from Epstein's island 3: Reloaded, which will be their most ambitious sequel yet, with characters from around the world

Spent a year with Eastern after the pandemic hit. Yeah, they were in constantly shifting mode, and there was a ton of turnover in the pilot ranks. A friend is still there as a captain on the 767 and he says things have settled down quite a bit, and the charter business has become quite lucrative. Mostly DoD charters, but also some sports charters. Most notably, the New England Patriots 767s (there are two of them) are operated by Eastern Airlines.

I had a flight with dynamic once, came to check in and they said the plane they had was too small for the amount of people booked so they cut off the check-in line in half and everyone in the latter half couldn’t get on. Then they didn’t care to refund anyone in the latter half and said have a good day…

I actually go to JFK a lot (being a new york aviation enthusiast) and I have PICTURES and videos of this single eastern airlines route from JFK back in 2020. It was really cool to see it.

Eastern Airlines was also the first operator of the A300. There is a cool story behind that.

This kind of reminds me of how one of the TV networks secretly produced a Blazing Saddles TV show, but never aired it, because their contract for the television rights required them to be making a TV show within a certain amount of time. When Mel Brooks tried to snag the rights back, under the principle that they hadn't met those terms, they came in and played him an episode, proving that they were in fact complying with the contract.

Go, Eastern! In the Winter, I used to go to Logan Airport for coffee. Ir was a short drive, about 10 minutes, and the Terminal was fabulous.. The Main Restaurant/Bar offered a great view -- the Net York Shuttle parked right in front of the huge Windows facing the apron or ramp. Ir was a great place to do some studying, they had a fantastic cheese cake.. And the planes being loaded and unloaded were right there -- Eastern Shuttle flew the first Airbus used in the US. Unlike all the other Terminals, Eastern's was not linked to the other concourses by walkways, sky-bridges or tunnels. In a cold New England day -- temperatures reaching minus 10 or 15 Celsius (around minus 6 Fahrenheit) -- walking through all the Terminals was an excellent exercise. The end of Eastern deserves to be remembered -- it was a mess, revealing very Poor management

I've seen Eastern Airlines at Signature FBO in SLC. They were doing government contracts transporting troops home.

Wondering if the writers got the idea about this video from a recent video about the same airline on Noel Philips' channel...

Yay another aviation video!!! Keep them coming!

I watched a RU-vid video of a couple doing this flight and I've been looking at booking a 1 way to Sana Domingo just to fly the 767-200, I also looking to see if HAI had a video on this and was surprised to see you didn't... this was 3 days ago.

I do remember once finding Eastern operating a flight from my native Riga to Bangor. I would also guess that the US Military charters flights from them as troop transport.

My girlfriend of 2 years and I are seasonal workers on Block Island, Rhode Island! It’s such a small place that not many know about so it’s very cool to see this! 🎉

There are some for those underground waste containers which have a crane. They lift the containers over the truck and dump the contents on top and the trash get compacted.

In short: Eastern Airlines only really has cargo planes carrying stuff, not people, but they want to have international people flights too one day, and in order to do that they must fly at least one international route every month: in this case, Miami, US - Santo Domingo, DO

as a domi myself this has had me thinking everytime i went to the airport and their website, the only flight being MIA-SDQ but as far as I can remember they also flew to SJU and to Uruguay 2 years ago

These Eastern planes are parked right beside my job at MIA airport, by where former Centurion Cargo used to park at. I think they are used to carry sports teams aswell sometimes. Only the 767 gets parked here, never seen a 737

They have been to Toronto a couple of times but i think it's been for a few sports charters like hockey and baseball

I watched the old commercials and while they are before my time I'm sad to see them go since "we earn our wings everyday" is so cool.

Not only do I remember Eastern Airlines, but I've got a deck of their playing cards sitting right over here.

The colors on the engine nacelles and tail of that plane are exactly the same as the colors of ALM Airlines, a now-defunct carrier that used to operate exclusively in the Carribean. Given this company's plan of reusing the Eastern Airlines name, this hardly seems like a coincidence.

Kinda like the ghost trains in the UK. Unprofitable trains that nobody uses that it's easier for the companies to run once a week than get into contract problems with the government if they cancel them completely.

"Imagine if Tom Cruise was a real person." My sources tell me, that he may in fact be a real person.

I thought this was going to end with Sam sending Amy to the Dominican Republic

Love when you do airline videos!! ❤

One of their airplanes was hosted in Fargo at my home airport for a ridiculous amount of time during COVID-19.

Actually, Eastern has been operating for years in the Flight Sim world as Eastern Hops, a multi-national company with hundreds of flights every week...

2:07 “Like, imagine if Tom Cruise was a real person who also owned an operated an airline?” This is why I love Half as Interesting lmao-

My grandfather retired from Eastern Airlines and knew Eddie Rickenbacker personally. I grew up hearing him complain about the union destroying the company, influenced my own opinion of unions a bit. This was interesting, I didn't realize Eastern still existed at all, in any form. 🤔🤓🍻

thank you for sharing this oddity in air traffic regulations - it actually reminds me of "Parliamentary Trains" in Britain 😂🚂... (wonder if anyone else had this spring to mind?)

I flew a chartered flight on eastern for my new years flight this year. Was an interesting experience.

I had no idea Eastern was still in business today. Back in the '70s and early '80s, the father of a good friend of mine was a pilot for Eastern Airlines, and in the '60s Eastern Airlines sponsored my maternal Grandfather in the PGA Pro-Am tournament for several years in a row. In the summer of 1982 (or was it '83?) I got to fly on one of Eastern's Lockheed L-1011 jets from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (and back the next week). Lots of connections to them back in the day -- had no clue they still existed at all today.

My first High School French Teacher, was an Eastern Airlines stewardess. She loved that company.

I work at an airport that gets Eastern Airlines charter flights for the Army every now and again; and prior to working here, I had absolutely no clue they still even existed.

This video made me interested in learning about Edward Rickenbacker. Fascinating man.

Dynamic Airlines was based in my town, Greensboro NC

The air field that is now Dobbins ARB in Marietta, GA, which is where they fly AF1 & AF2 to when the pres or VP visits, was originally named Rickenbacker Field. (Rickenbacker himself was from Ohio, though.)

Beautiful scenery

Always wondered if this eastern was related to the original, I have actually learned something from HAI

I love that Block Island got a shoutout in this video!

3:10 nah, it's like becoming a pilot on the 10th of September, 2001.

I live near their HQ(why Wayne,PA idk) and always wondered how many flights they flew.

4:00 sounds like those no passenger uk flights to reserve timeslots

Rickenbaker initially believed he'd been lost at sea for 21 days. It later turned out to be 24.

I remember EASTERN. When you flew into Atlanta or J F K back in the day EASTERN was everywhere. In Atlanta DELTA and EASTERN from what I could see were the top companies. I really miss EASTERN with the hockey stick livery.

There is also an "Eastern Airways" in the UK (regional with regional sized planes--ATR72's, Ebraerer 170/190, Jetstream 41) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Airways Nominally flying the up and down the East coast of the UK on various routes from Scotland to Southampton (when they started they also had Norwich and London City so were truly "Eastern" and some Eastern bound international routes as well but now include Newquay which is definitely "southwest" in the UK)

PLEASE, make more plane videos!!!!

Actually MIA - SDQ is not the only route Eastern has, as I've seen one of their aircraft at ASU (Asunción, Paraguay) various times.

Literally today an Eastern Airlines 767 landed at my home airport (Minot, ND, USA, which literally never gets widebody aircraft) from Honolulu. Do they do charter operations? Was this a divert? How do I find out?

Eddie Rickenbacker deserves his own video

Definitely need to watch the Noel Phillips video on this flight.

Eddie Rickenbacker has the potential for multiple movies...

Saw an Eastern Airlines Charter sitting on the Tarmac at the Nuremberg Airport on July 8, 2023. Must have been a charter. Was very confused until I searched it out.

I always remember the gag from the Simpsons where the Simpsons are at the Epcot Centre and they speak about Eastern Airlines taking over the world

Noel Phillips did a vlog on one of their flights.

Man that royalty free song playing in the background is groovin

read a book about Eddie rickenbacker getting lost at sea...he had multiple factures and injuries but then too recorved soon enough to take part in WW2....a definition of a COOL GUY

Bring back the creepy Eastern Airlines ride at Disney World!!! ;-)

"Kinda like a baby being birthed directly into a volcano". That is the single best description of 2020 I have ever heard.

I remember their slogan from the 70s: "Eastern the only way to fly." Their TV ads had a cartoon guy lounging on an airplane tail like it was a lawn chair recliner holding a cocktail drink in his hand.

Airlines used to give away all kinds of small branded items - my Mom still uses a small tin from them as a pin-holder

Thank god he finally posted a video including something related in the Dominican Republic

My uncle used to work for Eastern Airlines back in 1980’s.

I finally found it! The fully as interesting video Truly a banger

Finally I know why the packages from Miami takes to long to arrive to the country lol

So when is the jetlag season with a massive amounts of points for flying this route coming?

I once was at the riverside air museum (just by the runway Of march air reserve base) and saw an Eastern 777-200 there

I immediately went to check if Rickenbacker guitars were also started by Eddie Rickenbacker and no, it turns out it was his distant cousin. But he changed his name from Rickenbacher to Rickenbacker to capitalise on Eddie's popularity, so in a way they are named after him.

I love next to a airport call Phoenix Mesa gateway and I’ve seen the fly here twice checked the website twice and nothing it’s very interesting through

Question- what do the cabin crew who work for eastern do for the other days of the month as they only fly once?

I watch Noel Phillips too!

My dad worked for Eastern airlines for 28 years until they went bankrupt due to poor management and a union strike in 91. I remember walking the picket lines with him at MIA when I was about 12-13 years old.

There is something to be said for this theory, but I still think the Epstein 2 explanation is much more likely given this one is only half as interesting.