Is The End Of PEOPLExpress Upon Us (Again)?

PEOPLExpress announced today that it was temporarily suspending operations.  From the Airways News story:

PEOPLExpress will be suspending service until October 16, 2014, impacting the travel plans of thousands of customers around the United States and particularly in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. PEOPLExpress, based in Newport News, Virginia, has been struggling with operational reliability for nearly a week after one of its aircraft was struck by a service vendor’s truck. The suspension of operations may prove to be a terminal blow for the fledgling ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC).

Trying to run an airline is hard.  Trying to run an airline with 2 planes is harder.  Having no backup plane seems like career/investor money suicide.

I like the idea of more competition.  Ultra-low cost carriers aren’t always the best ways to do that, but they can affect pricing in a market.  Unfortunately for this iteration of PEOPLExpress, this isn’t the first bump in the road they’ve had since launching recently.

If you look up “temporarily suspending operations” in the airline euphemism dictionary, you’ll likely find a picture of a dead airline.