>
>In a message dated 6/30/98 6:00:53 AM Central Daylight Time,
>herbert_at_orchard.keme.co.uk writes:
>
><< Hugo wrote:
>
> >Could any of our distinguished list members ilustrate us about the
reasons
> >why that company get out of bussiness. >>
>
>I'm no expert on why People Express went out of business, but I'll give you
a
>few observations. One of the driving principles behind the company, one
that
>was unique within the airlines, was that every crewmember had the word
>"manager" attached to their title. For example, a pilot was known as a
flight
>manager, and, if I'm recalling this accurately, a flight attendant was
known
>as a customer service manager. In addition, we all had additional duties
>besides flying. We normally had some say as to what area we could work.
>Typically, this required 4 extra days of work per month, in addition to
normal
>flying duties. Areas where pilots worked included in Flight Dispatcher,
the
>training department, and in scheduling. This gave us a fairly well-rounded
>knowledge base in regards to how the airline operated. That system seemed
to
>work well while the airline was small and was not directly competing with
the
>major airlines. However, as People Express bought large amounts of 727s
and
>737s(alot of 727s from Braniff), it dictated a rapid expansion program.
The
>airline was not prepared for that expansion. And all us "managers" may
not
>have had the required expertise or "sophistication" to keep up with other
>airlines who had full-time schedulers, etc. I think American was the first
>airline to figure out that they could compete with People Express, by
blocking
>off a limited number of seats, with restrictions, at the same price. Other
>major airlines followed and soon People Express did not have the price
>advantage flying into many cities. And most customers, given the choice,
>preferred the full-service airlines at the same price. This strategy
allowed
>the major airlines to still charge a higher price to the business or last
>minute traveler, while taking away significant numbers from People Express.
I
>think the employees at People Express were highly motivated, but smiling,
>friendly faces were not enough and did not make up for many deficiencies
that
>were a result of trying to run the airline with alot of part-timers(pilots
and
>flight attendants doing additional duties), contract maintenance, and no-
>frills service. Regards, Mike Sasse, FedEx