People Express
13th in a Series: A Fictional Low Cost Carrier in the Eastern USA
People Express Airlines is an airline in the United States that operates on a low-cost carrier model. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland USA.
People Express presently serves over 20 cities around the eastern half of the United States, and maintains focus city operations at the following airports:
Baltimore/Washington-BWI
Boston-BOS
Chicago-MDW
Fort Lauderdale-FLL
New Orleans-MSY
Orlando-MCO
People Express is one of the earliest exemplars of the low cost carrier (LCC) business model. Despite having 6 focus cities, the airline eschews the more commonly seen hub-and-spoke route network in favor of operating point-to-point routes. This approach has resulted in the creation of a more comprehensive network of direct routes, reducing the need for passengers to make connecting flights.
History
1979-1982: Founding
People Express Airlines was first incorporated in March 1979 by Frank Calvert, a career airline executive, and a group of 12 investors led by Frank Vincent, a serial entrepreneur who was seeking to start a new airline to take advantage of the recently passed Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.
Mr Calvert, a very experienced executive, had worked for years with Interstate Airlines, a massive yet successful legacy US airline founded in the late 1940s. He most recently served as the carrier’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Chief Operations Officer (COO), before capping his 30 year career with Interstate doing a one year turn as its Interim CEO, to give the airline some time to properly search for a more permanent candidate. When Interstate’s board of directors passed him over and selected an outsider to be the new CEO, Mr Calvert decided to leave the company at the end of 1978.
Within days after departing Interstate Airlines, Mr Calvert was approached by Mr Vincent, who proposed setting up a new low cost carrier (LCC) airline based in the Washington DC and Chicago area. Mr Calvert agreed to the arrangement, provided that all investors except Mr Vincent would serve as silent partners on the company’s board of directors, giving the two men a free hand to manage the airline. Mr Vincent agreed and became Chairman of the company, the only board member authorized to speak with Mr Calvert at will. The two men hit it off well, and they soon became known around the company as Frank and Frank.
In early legal filings Mr Calvert had given the company the working name Stateside Airlines, a side-eye reference to his former company Interstate Airlines. In 1981 the company renamed itself The People’s Express, before the board finally adopted the more practical name People Express Airlines, stylized as PEOPLEexpress for short. Mr Calvert personally designed the original Happy Face livery and brand identity. A local commercial artist adjusted the happy face so it appeared to be grinning at passengers as they ascended the flight stairs to board the airplane - which at the time proved to be a popular marketing tactic.
Messrs Calvert and Vincent initially tried to lease space at Chicago-ORD and Washington-DCA, but were unable to obtain acceptable deals at either airport, in no small part due to significant interference brought about by Interstate Airlines - Mr Calvert’s former employers - who had a large presence at both airports. An attempt to lease gates at Washington-IAD also failed due to interference by both Interstate Airlines and a competitor also based at IAD, Meridian Airlines. Frustrated, People Express filed an antitrust lawsuit against both airlines in Federal court.
With the company’s lawsuit still bogged down in court two years on, in April 1981 People Express shifted tactics, and set down corporate headquarters and its primary base at Baltimore-BWI. BWI wasn’t particularly advantageous for access to the nation’s capital, but it still gave People Express a solid foothold in one of the country’s larger travel markets. A month later they were able to finally set up a second base at Chicago-MDW, which is an older airport compared to the more prestigious Chicago-ORD, but also situated closer to the city center. For many years People Express would successfully market both BWI and MDW as less crowded, easy-access alternatives to their respective alternative airfields.
Rather than spend capital on new airliners, People Express opted to lease several used Douglas DC-9-30 jets that were about 9 years old on average - some of which were ironically first used by Interstate Airlines. The aircraft were carefully refurbished and configured to carry 111 passengers: 95 Coach Class passengers set in 19 rows with standard 3+2 seating, and 16 Premium Class passengers arranged in 4 rows with higher quality and higher-priced 2+2 seating.
In early 1982, the People Express v. Interstate Airlines lawsuit had finally reached trial despite much foot dragging by the defendants. Once the trial got underway, it became clear that Interstate and Meridian Airlines were about to lose to People Express, and rumor had it that the court's antitrust remedies might dismantle either or both of the older airlines. To avoid this possibility, Interstate and Meridian finally decided to parlay with People Express and negotiate a settlement. Interstate agreed to give People Express 2 gates at Washington-DCA, while Meridian agreed to cede 3 gates at Chicago-ORD, while both companies would award People Express several million dollars in exchange for dropping the lawsuit.
People Express agreed to withdraw the lawsuit, then sold off all of the gates at DCA and ORD to other carriers for additional cash, then used the proceeds to order several of the recently launched new generation, larger capacity McDonnell Douglas MD-82s.
1982-1997: Early Years
After years of legal hassles and various fits and starts, People Express finally launched operations on 7 May 1982, with inaugural flights operating to and from four destinations: Baltimore-BWI, Boston-BOS, Chicago-MDW, and New York-LGA. Atlanta-ATL and Philadelphia-PHL were added over the summer, and Pittsburgh-PIT joined the network that fall. By the mid 1980s the airline was operating a strong web of point-to-point routes to several cities east of the Mississippi River, steering clear of the hub-and-spoke route model being deployed by other carriers.
The People Express Passenger Experience
The airline’s airfare structure, then and now, has been fairly simple: All window and aisle seats in Coach Class were set at the same price, while the middle seats were discounted 5-10%. Meanwhile all Premium Class seats were priced 25% more on average. Early and late flights offered off-peak fares at slightly reduced rates. Each passenger could bring one carry-on bag and one checked bag for free; after that additional bags could be checked starting at $5 each, depending on their weight at check-in time.
Food and beverages could be purchased for $1-$3, and beer or wine for $5; mixed drinks were not sold. Non-alcoholic beverages and snacks were complimentary to Premium Class passengers. The most popular food feature on People Express flights, however, was when the flight attendants would bake chocolate chip cookies during the final 30 minutes of each flight, giving them away for free to passengers as they deplaned. The cookies featured very prominently in the company’s advertising.
Migration To The MD-80 Series
People Express emerged as a very popular choice among college students and young people generally, as well as with more budget-minded travelers, and by the mid-1980s more aircraft were needed to meet demand and expand the network.
In 1984 the company added the McDonnell Douglas MD-82, followed by the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 subvariant in 1985 and the McDonnell Douglas MD-87 in 1987. The last of the older Douglas DC-9s were retired by 1990.
In 1988, Mr Calvert was able to add more gates to their Chicago-MDW base, making it into an important focus city for originating point-to-point flights throughout the eastern USA. Chicago quickly emerged as an important 2nd focus city for the carrier that proved highly profitable. Mr Calvert replicated the process again at Orlando-MCO, using its growing amusement industry to offer customers lucrative yet affordable vacation packages to that city.
Frank Calvert Retires, Replaced by Erik Neumann
In the spring of 1997 Frank Calvert announced his plans to retire, having led People Express for 18 years. With the board of directors’ approval, he accepted a seat on the board and appointed the company’s Chief Operations Officer (COO), Erik Neumann, to replace him as CEO. When Frank Vincent passed away in 1999, Mr Calvert replaced him as Chairman of People Express.
Mr Neumann implemented new fleet changes he had already been working on as COO.
He led the rollout of a new livery for the carrier that did away with the company’s classic bourbon and old gold Happy Face design, replacing it with a bright red and white swoosh pattern on the fuselage and an all-red tail. On the tail was the new People Express logo: a simple stylized drawing depicting two faces, one facing forward and the other backwards. This became known as the Two Faces livery.
The company also adopted a new slogan, “Lower Fares Every Day,” which served as a tagline in a series of TV commercials featuring the popular A-List TV and film actress Jocelyn Anderson, who served as the airline’s new advertising spokeswoman from 1997 through 2005.
1999-2004 Fleet Changes
In 1999, People Express began accepting delivery of its latest generation aircraft.
First there were the new 106-seat Boeing 717-200 twinjets, which were successors to the company’s older Douglas DC-9 and MD-80 series jets. The 717s were placed on the airline’s thinner routes around the eastern US while the carrier’s remaining MD-80 series jets were gradually withdrawn and retired from the fleet.
Meanwhile, the company began deploying its larger capacity, 160-seat Boeing 737-800 Next Generation airliners to service the airline’s busier routes, such as New York-LGA «» Chicago-MDW, Boston-BOS «» Baltimore-BWI, and Philadelphia-PHL «» Fort Lauderdale-FLL, among other city pairs. The new 737s were instrumental in upgrading Boston-BOS to focus city status during 2003.
By 2004 the last of the company’s MD-80 series jets had been removed from service, leaving People Express with a younger, all-Boeing fleet.
Erik Neumann Leaves, Replaced by Nigel Roberts
During the summer of 2004, Erik Neumann was offered the CEO position at Meridian Airlines, one of America’s largest legacy airlines. After much thought he decided to accept that offer and tendered his resignation with People Express.
Chairman Frank Calvert, by then 73 years of age, stepped back in as the Interim CEO while the company searched for a permanent candidate. In November 2004 the board hired Nigel Roberts, a 42 year old Scottish executive working for Britain’s Ambient Airlines, a long-haul boutique carrier that exclusively operated Boeing 747s and other widebody aircraft.
Mr Roberts, who had served most recently as the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Ambient, was considered by many in the airline industry to be an unusual choice for People Express: A low cost carrier (LCC) flying smaller narrowbody planes around a regional network within the USA. On the other hand, Mr Roberts was seen as a rising star in the airline industry, and his time with Ambient Airlines had been notably productive and successful.
Mr Roberts decided to stick with the LCC model but wanted to improve the look of the aircraft interiors, which were not aging well even in newer planes.
He hired a London interior design consultant to create a modern cabin interior mockup that was shown to customers passing through Chicago-MDW and Baltimore-BWI. After collecting feedback from customers Mr Roberts debuted the new design to the board of directors, who were pleased with the newer, brighter look of the design. The new interiors were installed across the entire fleet as quickly as possible, and the improved cabin interior upgrade received overwhelmingly positive reviews from passengers, not to mention the carrier’s cabin crew and interior cabin cleaning crews.
The other change orchestrated by Mr Roberts during his tenure with People Express was the rollout of a 25th Anniversary special livery that was painted on all new Boeing 737-800s that entered the fleet in 2007-2008. Instead of the default white color these aircraft were painted with a lush silver tone in front and the usual Torch Red color for the tail and fuselage swoosh. It too received positive reviews, and the company considered the possibility of adopting this new Shiny Silver/Torch Red livery as a new standard color scheme.
Unfortunately, the Great Recession came in late 2007 and it hit People Express very hard. Bookings dropped off dramatically and profits turned into deficits. The company had just completed its interior design change, but the Shiny Silver/Torch Red color scheme was more costly, so the airline quickly reverted to using the standard White on Torch Red design again.
Nigel Roberts Departs; Albert Flanagan Becomes 4th CEO
Mr Roberts was not prepared for the Great Recession’s various effects and proved to be unable to overcome it. In May 2008 he agreed to resign as CEO to avoid being fired by the board of directors. Mr Roberts returned to the UK and, after taking an extended R&R break, began the process of starting up a new British carrier, Roam Airlines, which opened in 2010 and remains in operation to the current day under his leadership.
Meanwhile, the People Express board of directors selected Albert Flanagan, the company’s COO, to take over as Interim CEO. The board gave him the role permanently a few months later.
The Ireland-born Mr Flanagan migrated to America when he was 10 years old, growing up in Boston. He joined People Express on its opening day in 1982 at Boston-BOS, where he started off multi-tasking as an aircraft marshaller, ground crewman and gate agent. By 1992 he became the City Manager for Boston-BOS, and from there he rose through the company’s operational ranks until being selected as COO in 2006 by the recently departed Mr Roberts.
Mr Flanagan sought to rebalance the company’s books by trimming some unprofitable routes and offering some buyout packages to employees wanting to retire or leave the airline. He also instituted hiring and spending freezes, and postponed plans to upgrade Fort Lauderdale-FLL into a focus city base. For the most part his efforts proved to be a successful strategy, and by the summer of 2009 the company was either breaking even or making modest revenue gains.
In 2011, despite the lingering after-effects of the Great Recession, Mr Flanagan decided to complete the upgrade of Fort Lauderdale-FLL to become the airline’s newest focus city. As part of that effort the company added a few more Boeing 717s to the fleet - the last of the type to be acquired - and also leased several new Boeing 737-700 aircraft from JetStream Aerospace. The airline cut the ribbon on its new terminal section at FLL in October 2011, a move that proved to be very remunerative, as the company’s profit margins rose decisively for the first time in recent years.
Boeing 737 MAX Migration
During 2011, Mr Flanagan placed an order for 50 new Boeing 737 MAX 8 airliners. When Boeing announced the shortened Boeing 737 MAX 7 at the 2016 Farnborough Air Show, People Express ordered 25 of the MAX 7s as well, expecting to see their deliveries by 2020.
The 737 MAX 8s began deliveries to People Express in early 2018, only for them to be halted in March 2019 when the US Federal Aviation Administration grounded all 737 MAX aircraft. While deliveries of the 737 MAX 8 resumed in late 2020 after the FAA grounding order was lifted, the 737 MAX 7’s entry into service encountered multiple delays, forcing People Express to stop not only retiring its older Boeing 717-200s, but to actually lease more of them to make up for the 737 MAX 7 service entry delays. By 2022 the airline had to also lease several now out of production Boeing 737-700s to make up for its continuing MAX 7 shortfall.
Delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX 7 still remains on hold as of press time, with no firm date for them to begin arriving any time soon.
Albert Flanagan Dies; Lydia Holland Becomes 5th CEO
In the spring of 2020, People Express Airlines was forced to nearly shut down due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. To survive, Mr Flanagan had the airline convert many of its passenger jets into Preighters, also known as Cargo in Cabin or CIC, wherein passenger aircraft are operated temporarily as cargo aircraft by loading freight into the passenger cabin. Some aircraft had its passenger seats removed, while in many cases the seats remained and cargo was packed onto seats or between seats, in overhead luggage bins - wherever the packages could fit. These preighters carried personal protective equipment, KN95 masks, mail, medical supplies, tools - any sort of cargo that could fit into the planes. By doing this, the airline was able to get by without the need to take out government loans, which Mr Flanagan wanted to avoid if possible.
Meanwhile, all but a handful of People Express office staff worked from home to avoid getting infected with Covid. Albert Flanagan, who was 61 at the time, insisted on working in the office with about a dozen other employees who had to work in-office for various practical reasons.
Despite diligent efforts to avoid getting infected, Mr Flanagan contracted Covid 19 in September 2020 and died from it within days. The company’s board of directors appointed one of its members, Jeremy Pendleton, to serve as Interim CEO. He was replaced within a few weeks by Lydia Holland, an airline executive from California who applied for the position.
Lydia Holland was born in Palm Springs, California in 1966. She studied at Stanford University, where she was also a star track athlete who won 4 medals in track at the 1988 Seoul Olympics: 2 individual bronze medals, 1 shared silver medal in the 4 x 400 m relay, and 1 shared gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay.
Ms Holland began her airline career in 1989 at CalJet, where she worked at the company’s headquarters in Oakland by day while studying by night at the University of California, Berkeley to gain her MBA degree - which she acquired in 1991. Thereafter Ms Holland went on to become CalJet’s CFO in 2016.
After narrowly losing a recent bid to become CalJet’s CEO, she accepted the CEO position at People Express in October 2020, at the invitation of the company’s board. She remains CEO of People Express as of 2024.
Meanwhile, the airline’s cofounder Frank Calvert, who had served as company Chairman since 1997, passed away in June 2021 at age 89 due to old age. Jeremy Pendleton was appointed as the new Chairman.
40th Anniversary Special Livery Rollout
During 2022, Ms Holland arranged for 7 of the company’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft to be repainted with a special livery to mark the airline’s 40th anniversary of operations. Each of the 7 specially painted aircraft were named for former employees of distinction, as follows:
Frank Calvert, founding CEO and CEO 1979-1997; Chairman 1997-2021; died 2021
Frank Vincent, founding Chairman 1979-1999; died 1999
Erik Neumann, 2nd CEO 1997-2005; retired as CEO Meridian Airlines 2013; still living
Nigel Roberts, 3rd CEO 2005-2008; founder and still current CEO and Chairman of British carrier Roam Airlines; still living
Albert Flanagan, 4th CEO 2008-2020; died 2020
Felicia Peterson, 1st company Flight Attendant hired in 1981, retired 2018; still living
Edgar Hall, 1st company Pilot hired in 1981, retired 2013; died 2024
All 7 specially named aircraft continue to operate today, although all have since been repainted with the standard Two Faces livery.
Recent Developments
As of 2024, the airline continues to run in a mostly efficient manner, and Ms Holland still serves as the company CEO. She is currently focused on opening a new operating base at Denver-DEN, which will link Denver to 11 existing destinations in the People Express network, while also adding new routes to 3 cities on the US west coast: Denver-DEN «» Seattle-SEA, Denver-DEN «» San Francisco-SFO and either Denver-DEN «» Los Angeles-LAX or Denver-DEN «» Los Angeles-BUR (or possibly both). The company is currently hiring new flight crew and leasing new Boeing aircraft to populate this new Denver-DEN base, with plans to begin flights from it by late 2024 or early 2025.
Ms Holland and her staff are also continuing to pursue fleet management solutions to work around the ongoing 2024 slowdown in Boeing aircraft deliveries. So far the company has been buying up second-hand Boeing 737 MAX 8s and Boeing 737-700s to help fill out the Denver-DEN base fleet, but management are also reportedly considering leasing 737-800s or even Airbus A320s in an effort to get Denver-DEN operational as quickly as possible.
Further to create a new People Express base in Los Angeles and possibly also the San Francisco bay area have been set in place, with an eye towards entering the very competitive yet very lucrative transcontinental US market as well as adding routes to Hawaii.
On a final note, People Express have placed firm leasing orders to acquire at least 10 Boeing 737 MAX 10s starting in 2025, with options to convert those orders to Boeing 737 MAX 9 should the MAX 10 not enter service by early 2025.
Regardless of how everything turns out, People Express Airlines fully expects to become a national airline by the end of 2025.
Destinations
People Express Airlines flies to the following destinations within the United States. [ System Route Map Link ]
Atlanta-ATL
Baltimore/Washington-BWI - HQ and Primary Base
Boston-BOS - Focus City
Buffalo-BUF
Charlotte-CLT
Chicago-MDW - Base
Cincinnati-CVG
Cleveland-CLE
Detroit-DTW
Fort Lauderdale-FLL - Focus City
Kansas City-MCI
Memphis-MEM
Milwaukee-MKE
Minneapolis/St Paul-MSP
New Orleans-MSY - Focus City
New York-LGA
Orlando-MCO - Base
Philadelphia-PHL
Pittsburgh-PIT
St Louis-STL
Tampa-TPA
Fleet
Current Fleet
The People Express Airlines fleet currently flies the following aircraft.
Boeing 737 MAX 8 - 2016-Present
Boeing 737-800 - 1999-Present - Retiring 2025
Boeing 737-700 - 2011-Present - Retiring late 2020s
Former Fleet
The People Express Airlines fleet previously included the following aircraft.
Douglas DC-9 - 1982-1990
McDonnell Douglas MD-82/-83/-88 - 1984-2004
Boeing 717-200 - 1999-2023
Future Fleet
People Express Airlines has placed orders for future delivery of the following aircraft.
Boeing 737 MAX 7 - Expected 2025-2027
Boeing 737 MAX 9 - Expected 2025
Boeing 737 MAX 10 - Expected 2025
=Nota Bene=
There was a People Express Airlines in real life during the 1980s and also in the 2010s, both using the stylized brand name PEOPLExpress. My version only shares a name and little else with either version.
The 1980s real life People Express was a nationwide low cost carrier that also flew to Europe as well as coast to coast across the USA. It used several Boeing 747s as well as Boeing 737s. It was merged into Continental Airlines in 1987.
The second version of real life People Express operated for a few months during 2014, using a pair of twenty-something year old Boeing 737-400s to fly in Florida and a handful of other eastern US states. It went under again in January 2015.
I liked the real life People Express logo that depicted two faces pointing in the same direction, but I redesigned the logo to have the faces pointing in opposing directions. I tried it on various background colors before I settled on a really bright shade of red known as Torch Red. I also decided to style the brand name differently, by spelling the two words out in contrasting colors (red/grey), and to not leave out the first E in “express” like the real life company did. Leaving that E out just didn’t look right to me.
When it came time to make up a retro version of the livery, I originally drew a classic hockey stick livery where the cheatline ran down the fuselage then curved up through the tail. I used a darker burgundy shade of red for the cheatline and a Vegas shade of old gold for the underbelly. I wasn’t very excited about how it looked at the time, but I published it like that anyway back in June 2024 and moved on.
But when I came back to this page in November 2024 to revise a few things, I decided to remake the retro livery entirely. First I brightened up the livery colors - switching to fire brick red and banana yellow to make it just a bit tacky. Then I ditched the hockey stick cheatline on the tail and placed a happy face on the tail, smiling while looking down and to the left towards the front door.
Now I really like the retro livery. Retro Livery #2 looked much better to me - a cheerful flying banana-happy face - so I kept it.I hope to draw up a special throwback livery that will reuse the happy face/flying banana them in a Boeing 737 MAX 10, if/when Boeing finally introduces the Max 10 into active service someday.
Speaking of Boeing, I always planned for People Express to use only Boeing aircraft, but I also decided that early on they would actually be a Douglas customer, then switch over to Boeing once McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in the late 1990s. I figured Frank and Frank (the founders of People Express) might be a couple of super pro-Boeing guys in the way Southwest Airlines IRL have been.
All liveries depicted in this article were conceived and drawn by the Author.
All aircraft templates displayed in this article were licensed from Norebbo and augmented by the Author for display. Blank side view templates of these aircraft are available for purchase through ShopNorebbo.
Route Maps were created using Great Circle Map.