 By 1985, Eastern was the largest IATA airline in terms of passengers and operated in 26 countries on three continents.During this era, Eastern's fleet was split between their "silver-colored hockey stick" livery (the lack of paint reduced weight by 100 pounds) and their "white-colored hockey stick" livery (on its Airbus-manufactured planes, the metallurgy of which required paint to cover the aircraft's composite skin panels).In 1983 Eastern became the launch customer of Boeing's 757, which was ordered in 1978.