On March 1, 1951 Eastern Air
Lines added Owensboro to Air Mail Route 47 between Evansville and Louisville.
This service was Owensboro’s
first airline passenger service. Owensboro's new $900,000 airport was
officially opened as part of an impressive program arranged for the
inauguration of air service.
An official cachet, picturing a
thoroughbred horse with a rider jumping a hurdle, was applied.
This cover was carried on the inaugural Air Mail Route 47 flight from Owensboro, Kentucky to Louisville, Kentucky (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Contract Air Mail Flights (CAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as 47E10.
Don Lussky, a noted air mail historian, prepared the cover.
Texas Air Corporation, the parent corporation of Continental Airlines, New York Air and People Express, purchased Eastern Airlines. Eastern continued to operate as a separate airline. Operations were not integrated with any of the Texas Air-owned companies.
As a result of labor disputes, Eastern filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and significantly cut back on its operation on March 9, 2989. After the initial reduction, Eastern slowly rebuilt its system with service to a few of the points previously served with a smaller number of flights. Eastern sold its lucrative “Shuttle” operation to Donald Trump and, in addition, sold off a large number of aircraft.
Eastern Air Lines ceased operations on January 18, 1991. This concluded the long history of an airline that could trace its roots back to May 1, 1928, with the first service of Pitcairn Aviation, Inc. In 1990, Eastern had sold its Central and South American routes to American Airlines and had been in receivership since declaring bankruptcy on March 9, 1989.