Northeast Airlines

IATA	ICAO	Callsign
NE	NEA	Northeast

Founded

20 July 1931 (as Boston-Maine Airways)

Commenced operations

19 November 1940 (as Northeast Airlines)

Ceased operations

1 August 1972 (merged with Delta Air Lines)

Destinations

See Destinations

Headquarters

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S

Northeast Airlines was a major U.S. air carrier based in Boston, Massachusetts. The airline was acquired by and merged into Delta Air Lines in 1972.

The airline began as Boston-Maine Airways, founded as a Pan Am contract carrier on July 20, 1931, by the Boston and Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroad, flying from Boston to Bangor via Portland. It flew only sporadically until August 11, 1933, when it began contract service for National Airways, an agreement which lasted four years. The name Northeast Airlines was adopted on November 19, 1940.

During World War II Northeast pioneered regular transatlantic service for the military under contract from the U.S. Army Air Forces. After the war they applied for authorization to operate passenger service across the Atlantic but were stymied by the Civil Aeronautics Board, which awarded the routes to Pan American World Airways and TWA.

The January 1945 OAG shows Northeast flights to seven cities, ranging from Boston to Moncton. There were just four departures a day from Boston and four return flights - nothing else.

Northeast's Convair 240s and DC-3s did not fly south or west of New York/Newark until 1956 when they added flights to Washington National. In 1957 they added three Douglas DC-6B "Sunliner" nonstops from La Guardia to Miami.

A series of crashes damaged the airline's image:

Northeast ordered ten turboprop Vickers Viscounts in the late 1950s and used them until financial problems in the early 1960s forced the company to return them to the manufacturer. Northeast leased a single Boeing 707 from TWA for 1959-60 winter flights to Florida. In 1960 Northeast leased six Convair 880s and flew them to Florida for several years.

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Wikipedia