Eastern Will Add 101 Daily Flights on Oct. 1
MIAMI — Eastern Airlines, nearing the seventh month of its strike, on Wednesday said it will add an additional 101 daily flights Oct. 1 and is ahead of its rebuilding schedule.
The announcement of new flights, most between Florida and Northeast cities, came a day before Eastern officials were scheduled to make a presentation in New York to creditors on their rebuilding plan. While Eastern says it is making good progress on efforts to rebuild without its unions, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Eastern faces $400 million in revenue shortfalls and may have to revise its plan for emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
“We do have a meeting with the creditors and we’ll give them an overall status report,†said Eastern spokeswoman Karen Ceremsak. She declined to comment further, but said, “One thing that hasn’t changed is that the creditors will all be paid.â€
The Journal, quoting unidentified sources, said parent Texas Air Corp. may underwrite some of Eastern’s operations because Eastern’s negotiations with rival American Airlines on the sale of Latin American routes have stalled. The sale had been expected to bring in as much as $400 million for Miami-based Eastern.
Eastern President Phil Bakes said recently that the carrier may not sell the full $1.8 billion in assets as originally planned, adding that the Latin American routes wouldn’t necessarily be sold.
While Bakes said Eastern intends to be bigger than first planned, union officials say the effort to rebuild is foundering.
George Brennan, Eastern’s vice president for marketing, said the carrier has sufficient numbers of pilots and planes to boost its schedule again.
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