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 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.