On August 1, 1947, Pan American Airways and British Overseas Airways, which hitherto had enjoyed a monopoly on service between the United States and Hamilton, Bermuda, were given competition in the form of Colonial Airlines’ parallel service which was authorized under the above route certificate.

In addition, Colonial was allowed to provide service to and from Washington DC.

This cover was carried on the inaugural Foreign Air Mail Route 33 flight from the National Airport Station in Washington, DC to Hamilton, Bermuda (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Foreign Air Mail (FAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as F33-2F.

Eastern Air Lines absorbed Colonial Airlines on June 1, 1956. Colonial Airlines had operated for more than 25 years without a passenger fatality.

Texas Air Corporation, 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 it 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.