Eastern Provincial Airways

  1949 to 1986

  Canada

TYPE: Airline

IATA/ICAO CODES: PV / EPA

HEADQUARTERS: St John's, NL (1949-1954), Gander, NL (1954-1986)

FORMER NAME: Nil

SUBSEQUENT NAME: Canadian Pacific Airlines (purchased 1986)

Eastern Provincial Airways was founded in St John's, NL in 1949 by bush pilot and RCAF WWII verteran Eric Blackwood, with the financial backing of St John's businessman C. A. Crosbie. The company started out with a single Noorduyn Norseman operating a variety of flight such as ambulance, mail, cargo, charters, and forest & ice patrols. In 1953, two PBY Canso amphibians were purchased, one assigned to charter work and the other to water-bombing missions on behalf of the Canadian government.

In 1954, Eastern Provincial moved to Gander, NL, a much busier airport served by several international airlines on their way to or from Europe, like Pan American and BOAC. In Gander, Eastern Provincial set up administrative offices and a maintenance hangar and added Douglas DC3s and Lockheed 10 Electras to the fleet. Scheduled passenger services were started between St John's, Gander and Deer Lake in 1955. A wet lease contract for PBY Cansos and DHC3 Otters was secured in 1958 with Air Greenland and lasted 7 years.

From 1960, the network expanded to include Wabush and Twin Falls, using two leased Commandos. In 1962, the first of many Handley Page Heralds was purchased. In 1963, Eastern Provincial purchased Maritime Central, making the company a potent competitor against government-owned Trans Canada Airlines (later to become Air Canada). In the late 1960's, the fleet included DHC2 Beavers, DHC3 Otters, Douglas DC3s & DC4s, Heralds, Cansos and Carvairs. However, in 1970, Eastern Provincial decided to focus on the airline business: bush operations were sold off as a separate entity, and the fleet was standardized through the purchase of Boeing 737-200s. The network was expanded to cover Quebec and New Brunswick, making the airline one of the major players in the airline business in Eastern Canada. Charter flights were conducted all the way to Florida and the Caribbean.

However, in the late 1970's, Eastern Provincial started to suffered losses due to overcapacity. The 1980 airline deregulation forced airlines to consolidate, and Eastern Provincial entered into a strategic alliance with Canadian Pacific Air Lines of Vancouver, BC, which had a complementary network. Toronto and Montreal acting as connecting hubs between the two airlines. Soon afterwards, Canadian Pacific bought Eastern Provincial, and by 1986 Eastern Provincial had completely disappeared as its operations were merged into Canadian Pacific's.

1962* to 1963*

Eastern Provincial operated two Commandos, leased from Nordair.

• Smith Super 46C Commando:  CF-NAD, CF-NAE