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.
In addition to Baltimore-BWI, People Express currently serves over 20 cities around the eastern half of the United States, and maintains focus city operations at Boston-BOS, Chicago-MDW, Fort Lauderdale-FLL, New Orleans-MSY and Orlando-MCO. The company steers clear of the more commonly seen hub-and-spoke route network, instead operating point-to-point routes which helps to reduce 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 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 passed him over and installed an outsider as 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 the investors would act as silent partners other than to serve on the company’s board of directors, thus giving Mr Calvert a free hand to manage the airline. Mr Vincent agreed and he became Chairman of the company, as well as the only board member authorized to speak with Mr Calvert at will. The two men hit it off well, and soon became known around the company as Frank and Frank.
In early legal filings Mr Calvert gave the company the working name Stateside Airlines, a side-eye reference to his former company Interstate Airlines. In 1981 the company was first renamed itself The People’s Express, before the board finally adopted the more practical name People’s Express Airlines. Mr Calvert personally developed the initial “hockey stick” style livery and brand identity.
In 1979 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, due in no small part to significant interference brought about by Mr Calvert’s former employer Interstate Airlines, who had a large presence at DCA. An attempt to lease gates at Washington-IAD also failed due to interference by both Interstate Airlines and a competitor 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, in April 1981 People Express shifted tactics and set down its corporate headquarters and primary base at Baltimore-BWI. BWI wasn’t particularly advantageous for access to the nation’s capital, but it did give People Express a solid foothold in one of the country’s largest travel markets. A month later they were able to finally set up a second base at Chicago-MDW, which was an older airport than the more prestigious Chicago-ORD, but was also located closer to the city center. For many years People Express would market BWI and MDW as less crowded 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” passengers arranged in 4 rows with higher quality 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 speculation had it that the court would probably break up both older airlines as its antitrust remedy. To avoid this possibility, Interstate and Meridian decided to parlay with People Express and negotiate a settlement. Interstate agreed to give People Express 2 gates at Washington-DCA Meridian agreed to cede 4 gates at Chicago-ORD, while both companies awarded People Express several million dollars in exchange for dropping the lawsuit. People Express agreed to withdraw the lawsuit, then sold the ORD gates back to Meridian Airlines for additional cash.
People Express decided to use the proceeds from their settlement to place orders for 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.
The airline’s airfare structure was simple: Economy seats were the same price, while Premium seats cost about 25% more on average. Early and late flights offered off-peak fares at slightly reduced rates. Each passenger was permitted to bring one carry-on bag and one checked bag for free, while additional bags could be checked for $5 each.
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 feature of People Express flights, however, was when the flight attendants baked fresh chocolate chip cookies during the final 30 minutes of each flight, then gave them away for free to exiting passengers as they deplaned.
The airline became very popular with college students and young people in particular, as well as budget-minded travelers in general, and more planes were added to the fleet to meet demand and expand the network. In 1984 the company added the McDonnell Douglas MD-82, followed by the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 in 1985. The McDonnell Douglas MD-87 was brought into the fleet in 1987, and 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 and began offering direct service to that city and its growing amusement industry.
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 appointed the company’s Chief Operations Officer (COO), Erik Neumann, to replace him and accepted a seat on the board. In 1999 Frank Vincent passed away, and Mr Calvert replaced him as Chairman of People Express.
Mr Neumann proceeded to implement new fleet changes he had been working on as COO. He led the rollout of a new livery for the carrier that did away with its classic bourbon and old gold “hockey stick” stripes, replacing that pattern 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. 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 would become the airline’s spokeswoman in ads from 1997 through 2005.
In 1999, People Express accepted delivery of its latest generation aircraft.
First there were the new 106-seat Boeing 717-200 twinjets, which were successors to the DC-9 and MD-80 series jets. The 717s were placed on the airline’s thinner routes around the eastern US, and the carrier’s remaining MD-80 series jets were gradually withdrawn and retired from the fleet.
Meanwhile, the company also began rolling out the larger capacity, 160-seat Boeing 737-800 Next Generation airliner to service the airline’s busier routes, such as New York-Chicago, Boston-Baltimore and Philadelphia-Fort Lauderdale, among others city pairs. The new 737s were instrumental in upgrading Boston-BOS to focus city status in 2003. By 2004 the last of the MD-80 series jets had been removed from service, leaving People Express with an all-Boeing fleet.
Erik Neumann Leaves, Replaced by Nigel Roberts
In 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 Interim CEO while the company searched for a permanent CEO to replace Mr Neumann. In November 2004, the board hired Nigel Roberts, a 42 year old Scottish executive with 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 flying smaller narrowbody planes around a regional network. On the other hand, he was considered by many to be a rising star in the business.
Mr Roberts decided to stick with the LCC model but wanted to improve the look of the aircraft interiors, which were looking aged 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, 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 in a lush silver tone in front, with the usual Spanish Red color for the tail and fuselage swoosh. It too received positive reviews, and the company was considering the possibility of making this new Shiny Silver/Spanish Red livery its future standard color scheme.
Unfortunately, the Great Recession came in late 2007 and it hit People Express very hard. Bookings dropped off drastically and profits turned into deficits. The company had just completed its interior design change, but the silver color scheme was more costly so the airline reverted to using the standard white on Spanish Red design again.
Nigel Roberts Departs; Albert Flanagan Becomes 4th CEO
Mr Roberts was unprepared 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 a two month 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.
The board selected Albert Flanagan, the company’s COO, to take over as Interim CEO, then gave him the role permanently a few months later.
Mr Flanagan was Irish born but grew 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 Mr Flanagan rose through the company’s operational ranks until he was selected as COO in 2006 by the recently departed Mr Roberts.
Mr Flanagan sought to rebalance the company’s balance sheet by trimming some unprofitable routes and offering buyout packages to employees wishing to retire or leave the airline. He also instituted hiring and spending freezes, as well as postponing plans to open an operating base at Fort Lauderdale-FLL. For the most part it appeared to be a successful strategy, and the company managed to either break even or eke out small gains by the summer of 2009.
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, and the move proved to be very remunerative, as the company’s profit margins rose decisively for the first time in recent years.
Also in 2011, People Express Airlines 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, expecting to see delivery by 2020.
The 737 MAX 8s began deliveries in in early 2018, but deliveries were 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 faced multiple delays, forcing People Express to not only stop retiring its older Boeing 717-200s, but to actually lease more of them to make up for the MAX 7’s service entry delays. By 2022 the airline had to also lease some now out of production Boeing 737-700s to make up for the MAX 7 shortfall. The Boeing 737 MAX 7 remains on hold as of press time, with no firm date for deliveries to begin 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 and any other cargo that could be fit into the planes. By doing this, the airline was able to get by without the need for 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 there for various practical reasons. Despite diligent efforts to avoid getting infected, Mr Flanagan contracted Covid in September 2020 and died from it within days.
The company’s board of directors appointed one of its own, Jeremy Pendleton, to serve as Interim CEO, but he was replaced within two 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 1 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 bid to become CalJet’s CEO, in 2020 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 founder Frank Calvert, who had served as company Chairman since 1997, passed away in June 2021 at age 89 due to old age.
In 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 2020
Frank Vincent, founding Chairman 1979-1999; died 1999
Erik Neumann, 2nd CEO 1997-2005; retired as CEO Meridian Airlines 2013, still alive
Nigel Roberts, 3rd CEO 2005-2008; founder and still current CEO and Chairman of British carrier Roam Airlines, still alive
Albert Flanagan, 4th CEO 2008-2020; died 2020
Felicia Peterson, 1st Flight Attendant hired in 1981; retired 2018, still alive
Edgar Hall, 1st Pilot hired in 1981; retired 2013, passed away 2018
As of 2024, the airline continues to run in a mostly efficient manner. Ms Holland continues to serve as CEO, and 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 connecting to 3 cities on the US west coast: Seattle-SEA, San Francisco-SFO and either Los Angeles-LAX or Los Angeles-BUR. The company is currently attracting flight crew and Boeing aircraft to populate the new Denver-DEN base, with plans to begin flights from there in late 2024.
Ms Holland and her staff are also continuing to seek fleet management solutions to work around the 2024 slowdown in Boeing aircraft deliveries. So far the company has been buying up second-hand Boeing 737 MAX 8s and 737-700s to help fill out the Denver-DEN base fleet, but have also also reportedly considering resorting to leasing 737-800s or even Airbus A320s in an effort to get Denver-DEN operational by November 2024.
Longer term plans are also reportedly in place to create a new People Express base in Los Angeles and possibly also the San Francisco bay area, with an eye towards entering the very competitive yet very lucrative transcontinental US market. It is known that People Express have firm orders with Boeing to acquire either at least 10 Boeing 737 MAX 10s starting in 2025, with options to convert those orders to Boeing 737 MAX 9 if the MAX 10 does not enter service by early 2025.
Destinations
People Express Airlines flies to the following destinations within the United States.
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 consists of the following aircraft.
Boeing 737 MAX 8 - 2016-Present
Boeing 737-800 - 1999-Present - Retiring 2025
Boeing 737-700 - 2011-Present
Former Fleet
People Express Airlines previously used 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 and/or 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 2010s real life People Express flew for only a few months during 2014, operating a pair of twenty-something year old Boeing 737-400s to fly in Florida and a handful of other eastern US states. It started in May 2014 and shut down in September 2014.
I liked the real life People Express logo that depicted two faces pointing in the same direction, but I decided to redesign the logo so that the faces faced in opposing directions. I tried it on various background colors before I settled on a 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” as was originally done in real life. Leaving that E out just didn’t look right to me.
I always planned for People Express to use only Boeing aircraft, but decided that early on it would actually be a Douglas customer, then switch to Boeing once McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in the late 1990s.