PEOPLExpress to return?

People Express failed I believe because employees do not adapt well to the theory of cross-utilization of staff. That was part of the original idea to keep operating costs down (in theory). If they try that strategy again it will probably fail again. I’m not sure whether simply using the name of a defunct company will make much difference

Yes – there have been several airlines that have used the Pan Am name since the original closed.

There was also a second Laker, who operated DC-10s for a couple of years out of Florida in the mid 1990s.

And Flybe called themselves British European for a short period after ditching the Jersey European name.

Is using an old name a good idea? I suppose the track record of these reincarnations tells its own story.

The Laker one was particularly interesting, as it wasn’t just a re-use of the name but an attempt by Freddie Laker to recreate the original, albeit it was based in the US. He soon found that once the initial publicity machine died down, passengers were not interested in the airline’s name, but the routes, the price and the service.

And I reckon that the same will happen to Peoplexpress – get the routes, aircraft, service and, critically, price, right, and they will be ok. If they don’t, using an old name won’t save them once the initial publicity has faded.