Page "Melbourne International Airport" Paragraph 8

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the airport also had scheduled airline service operated by Eastern Airlines, which utilized Boeing 727 and Douglas DC-9 jetliners as well as Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop aircraft on flights serving Melbourne.

Eastern was also cognizant of the proximity of Melbourne to the NASA Kennedy Space Center and introduced new air services accordingly.

In June of 1967, Eastern announced a new route they called " The Space Corridor " which introduced service from Melbourne to three important aerospace centers that were involved with the NASA space program at the time, being Huntsville, AL, St. Louis and Seattle.

Eastern's " Space Corridor " service featured a daily flight with a Melbourne-Orlando-Huntsville-St. Louis-Seattle routing that was operated with a Boeing 727-100.

Also according to the airline's timetable in June of 1967, Eastern was flying nonstop jet service from Melbourne to Atlanta, Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale, and also operated direct, no change of plane jet service to New York City ( JFK Airport ), Washington, D. C. ( Dulles Airport ), Boston and Miami.

And in February of 1976, Eastern was flying direct, no change of plane service from Los Angeles to Melbourne with one intermediate stop in Atlanta that was flown with a Boeing 727-100.

However, minimal customers and the effects of airline deregulation in 1978 led to Eastern eventually discontinuing all service from Melbourne.