Great wings don’t mean a profitable airline

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, March 28, 2006

It’s a sad, sad day, aerospace fans. The airline with the greatest hot wings in the sky, Hooters Air, will suspend operations in April, according to the Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/14211018.htm

The airline will drop scheduled service and become a charter carrier for sports teams, which is what Pace Airlines did before it was purchased and re-branded by Hooters founder Bob Brooks three years ago. Its fleet consists of two 737 “classics” — a -200 and a -300 — plus a 757-200.

Key Quote: “The chairman of Hooters of America – the international restaurant chain known for its chicken wings and female servers dressed in snug T-shirts and orange shorts – said he hoped to ‘have a little fun’ in an industry that had always fascinated him. … But high fuel prices and other challenges in the airline industry brought the fun to an end. ‘The flying industry is in a terrible mess,’ Brooks said. ‘I’ve got a fair amount of money, but I don’t have enough to fix this animal.’”

Sadly, it may be too late to order your Hooters Air memorabilia online. The link on the airline Web page http://www.hootersair.com/ has been disabled.