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> At Eastern, President Floyd Hall, 54, former pilot and later a vice president of TWA, has achieved a remarkable corporate revival since the 1963 retirement of World War I Ace Eddie Rickenbacker. By the time Hall took over, Eastern's shoddy service had led to the formation of an informal but nationwide WHEAL (for "We Hate Eastern Air Lines") club. Today, that club is only a memory. Equipment and service have vastly improved. From a $37.8 million loss in 1963, Eastern rebounded to a $29.7 million profit last year, managed to make the best return on investment (12.8%) among the big lines; TWA was second at 12.2% . But Eastern is still held down by the fact that it has too many short-hop routes to use jets efficiently; the average Eastern passenger travels a mere 310 miles. Hall has therefore flung Eastern headlong into the competition with eight other U.S. airlines, including TWA, United and American, for lucrative transpacific-route rights now held only by Pan Am and Northwest.
> At American, President Marion Sadler, 55, a onetime schoolteacher who still spends an hour a day studying Latin ("I'm reading Caesar now"), is assuming increasing responsibilities from durable Chairman C. R. Smith, 67, who made the line virtually the extension of his own bulky shadow (TIME cover, Nov. 17, 1958). Once the nation's largest airline, American's share of the domestic market has slipped from 22% to 19% in the past five years, partly because the CAB has kept it from expanding its routes at home as much as most other lines. Yet American has kept its profits aloft by paring costs and filling up its planes through promotional campaigns like the youth fare.
> At Braniff, ninth largest of the trunk lines, flamboyant Harding Lawrence, 46, took charge last year and has already lifted its earnings 58% by tripling its jet fleet and adding such eye-catching innovations as ocher-painted planes, gaudy interior decor and hostesses in Pucci dresses.
> At Pan Am, Juan Terry Trippe, 67, one of the true pioneers of U.S. commercial aviation, remains very much in charge, partly because he is wise enough to delegate more and more responsibility to younger men, partly because he has lost none of his instinct for money-making innovations. Trippe was the first to order the 490-passenger Boeing 747 —some $525 million worth—for delivery starting in 1969. But even Trippe can have problems. The most notable: Pan Am flies the rest of the way around the world, but, by Government edict, its planes cannot take customers across the U.S. Pan Am has long argued that it should be permitted continental pickup rights. Last week a Civil Aeronautics Board examiner agreed, recommended that Pan Am be allowed to carry passengers between the East and West coasts on flights to and from Europe, with stopover privileges in New York. Pan Am would still be barred from carrying purely domestic traffic.