Eastern Air Lines Shuttle

Service

On April 30, 1961, Eastern inaugurated the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle. Initially 95/96 seat Lockheed 1049 Super Constellations left New York-LaGuardia every two hours, from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM, to Washington National and to Boston. On August 1 LGA-BOS became hourly, 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM out of each city; LGA-DCA followed in the next month or two. Fare in May 1961 was $10.95 to Boston and $12.75 to Washington; rail coach to Washington was $9.68. Passengers could pay in cash after boarding, so the fares soon dropped a few cents to $12 and $14 including the 10% federal tax.

Reservations were not needed, seat assignments were not given, and initially no check-in was required and no boarding passes were issued. But Eastern guaranteed everyone a seat; if the flight filled up, another aircraft was ready to go. On Sunday after Thanksgiving 1961 the 10 PM flights between La Guardia and Boston carried 623 passengers on seven aircraft. The Sunday following Thanksgiving was always the Shuttle's busiest day; on 1 December 1968 the Shuttle carried 21,760 passengers on 94 first-section flights and 197 extra sections.

The Shuttle peaked in 1963, when weekdays saw hourly Super Constellations 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM each way LGA-BOS and LGA-DCA, hourly DC-7Bs 7:30 to 10:30 each way EWR-BOS, Super Constellations every two hours 7:30 to 9:30 each way EWR-DCA and five flights each way DCA-BOS. In 1966 the NY Times reported that the Shuttle was carrying 86% of the "Washington-New York area air traffic" and 76% of the traffic to Boston; it said the Shuttle "lost several million dollars a year until about two years ago".

Electras took over the first sections LGA-BOS and LGA-DCA in Sept-Oct 1965 (the last Constellation shuttle flights were in 1968); Electras became backups to 727s in 1966, then to DC-9s in 1967.