Eastern Airlines A300 Flight from Charlotte to New York (LGA)

Filmed on November 15, 1980

[@65strad]

Dad retired out of Atlanta as a senior Captain for Eastern on the A 300 during this era.

[@itsjonathanku6074]

OMG I just finished building a scale model of the same exact aircraft; N204EA!! What a coincidence :D

[@stevenS6598]

Great flight from aviation history. Eastern Airlines A300 CLT-LGA. I flew this route but on an Eastern 757-200 back in 1984.

[@ikegee7420]

these were the best dam pilots in the world,they are long gone, i wanna thank you for getting me to and from during my army days in the 1980s.

[@SDMullis]

This was filmed with a Bell&Howell Super 8mm movie camera. It used real rolls of film...you are too young to remember. I did not have to add sepia effects, etc. That is the way the movies looked back then. I do not think Delta took over Eastern. They got a few L-1011s when Eastern shut down but no A300s.

[@mrblujet]

An A300 from CLT to LGA? Man - those were the days !

[@chriscolumbia9579]

Eastern Airbus A300 was simply the best! Nice to see the Midway DC-9 and Piedmont 737 at the end.

[@danielplayz5908]

Looking at this and see how much the world have improved

[@vembermember]

cool video I sure miss the good classic airlines like Eastern, Pan-Am, TWA

[@chriscolumbia9579]

Great plane, great airline.

[@glenharris8777]

I worked it flight ops for Eastern Airlines back then....great experience in my 20's...gate 35 was for the A300 and L-1011

[@TWA-km9wt]

Yep, and gates 31,32, and 33, were on the other side of the finger, for the DC-9's and 727's.😁 Eastern will always have a nice place in my heart.

[@hzzlrp10]

@SDMullis Quite correct. Delta did not take over Eastern, the airline imploded on itself in 1991. Delta (amongst others) picked over the company's assets after the shut down. They got several L-1011, 727, and I believe some DC-9's. I believe the A-300 went on to fly with Continental if I'm not mistaken.

[@Inti47]

This plane N204EA was my first ride ever from SJU to JFK back in 1986. Thanks for posting. Great memories.

[@Springbok295]

I was in 7th grade when you shot this. Brings back memories of my first EA A300 ride in '82.

[@jt8fan7272]

Wow!! My father worked on these at Eastern! I wished I could have flown on one, b/c he said they were great airplanes. Thanks for posting these vids!

[@ryankenyon5010]

Cool! Thanks!

[@Anyone553]

Love the video and music

[@perezster]

I use to love to see the Airbus A300, Eastern Airlines was the only one to have it.

[@strafrag1]

Those were EAL's first, then sold to CO & AA.

[@chriscolumbia9579]

No, American ordered Airbus aircraft directly from the manufacturer. In fact American was the launch customer for the A300-600Rs and flew them primarily on shorter haul high demand routes to the Caribbean and Latin American. American also deployed some Airbus planes from JFK and BOS to Europe, albeit for a short period of time. The A300 was noted for having a larger cargo capacity compared to American's 767, which made it highly lucrative. In 1991, an American A300 crashed after take off from JFK. Some pilots refused to fly the plane and public perception began to wane. American eventually dumped their Airbus fleet. Continental acquired Eastern's A300's, which were the A300-RB4 models, when both companies were under the umbrella of Texas Air. However, not all of Continental's A300's came from Eastern. The first four or five to arrive were ex-Singapore Airlines. Others were picked up from Airbus at a reduced price, because they were unsold. Around1986 Texas Air began transferring assets from Eastern to Continental, because CO had lower operating costs (union versus non-union) Only minimal changes were made to the interiors. Accordingly passengers could readily distinguish a Continental Airbus from an Eastern Airbus. Even though the Airbus was a wide cabin aircraft, they were not equipped with Continental's lauded "Pub," which was essentially a lounge. Continental flew the A300's through the mid 1990's. However age, disrepair, maintenance and comparatively poor fuel costs lead to the A300's demise. The fleet was phased out along with the 737-100, 737-200, DC9-50, and 727-200. Indeed Gordon Bethune, then Continental CEO, monikered these airplanes as "junk jets." CO made a deal with Boeing to become an exclusive purchaser in exchange for steep discounts. This arrangement enabled Continental to replace all their "junk planes" with next generation Boeings.

[@TWA-km9wt]

@@strafrag1 Well Eastern gave them to CO. AA purchased their own , which was a different model. A300-600B, which was a 2 man cockpit, vs the A300, which had a flight engineer.

[@MrAirplanepeanut]

awesome video thanks you for sharing!

[@ogre727]

wow!!! amazing... thanks for posting!!!

[@PetrolHeadBrasil]

What a video!! Thanks!!

[@ITSWIN55]

oh, im sorry, i meant western airlines, and now i realize they did not actually have A300s since this is easter airlines and not western. Oh well, although im certain i saw a delta A310 or A300 once

[@SDMullis]

Yes. I used a Bell&Howell Super 8 movie camera. Sure wish digital video cameras were available back then !

[@RicardoNY1]

Eastern A-300's into KLGA? All I got to see were the L-1011's. Good video, thanks for sharing.

[@ITSWIN55]

yes, i confused eastern and western airlines, which was the actual airline they took over (which got them the SLC hub)

[@TheTraveler976]

wow so cool

[@AlcidesSegovia]

I can't believe they used such heavy plane on that route.

[@ITSWIN55]

SDMullis, did you edit the video to give it a sepia-oldy effect or where videos really like that in 1980? also as i wasnt born at the time, could you tell me if you ever spotted a delta a300 since they took over eastern airlines?

[@gaguy1967]

@ITSWIN55 The EAL A300s went to Continental

[@Davey74Boy]

A lovely plane to be sure but why was such a big one needed for such a short flight such as this one?

[@TWA-km9wt]

They just got the A300 at that time. They used it on short flights at first, so the pilots would get familiar with it, before they put it on longer flights, mainly to Florida. They use to operate many flights to FLL, and MIA, from LGA, with the A300, and the L1011.

[@WWR38]

A great plane.

[@tomm9540]

I remember when we used to have to wear those UGLY BREEN colored Uniforms!!!!!!!! UGH They kept trying to tell us that they won all of these Awards, we all hated them, was very glad to go back into Navy Blue