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Is Hooters Air Going Bust?
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Low-cost carrier Hooters Air is ending service at two Pennsylvania airports and apparently will depart the Tampa Bay, Fla., area for good next month, further clouding the future of the Myrtle Beach-based airline. Hooters Air is ending service to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton by March 26 and at the Lehigh Valley airport by April 17, Pennsylvania airport officials said. "Hooters is ceasing service pretty much everywhere," said Barry Centini, director of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. Airline president Mark Peterson said Thursday evening he was "not ready to comment." He did immediately return a phone message Friday.
Story Continues Below At the Lehigh Valley International Airport near Allentown, airport board members said last month that Hooters owed the airport $1 million for fuel. Hooters Air has stopped selling flights at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport after April 17. Airport director Noah Lagos said Peterson told him Friday that the airline hadn't decided on continuing its four weekly round trips to Allentown, Pa. But an Allentown airport executive e-mailed him that the airline was ending the flights next month and calling passengers with the news. "It appears Hooters Air is leaving our market," said Lagos. "They're looking at what markets they serve and I think they're trying to figure out if they're going to stay in business or not."
Hooters Air has struggled since last summer with problems plaguing the entire airline industry: sky-high fuel costs and low air fares. The carrier slashed its schedule in January, including three nonstop destinations from St. Petersburg: Columbus, Ohio; Gary, Ind.; and Rockford, Ill. Hooters Air called the changes at Columbus and Gary "seasonal adjustments" and pledged to resume the flights this month, but hasn't so far. The tiny airline attracted super-sized publicity since its inaugural flight from Myrtle Beach to Atlanta in 2003 and again locally upon landing in St. Petersburg. Two Hooters girls dressed in the same skimpy outfits as at restaurants serve food and play trivia games with passengers on each flight. Boarding passes are tucked inside replica restaurant menus and the Hooters logo adorns the side of each plane. Hooters Air is owned by Robert Brooks, chairman of Atlanta-based Hooters of America, which bought trademark and franchise licensing rights from the restaurant's original Clearwater owners. Brooks has said he could write off modest losses as a marketing expense for the nearly 400 Hooters his company owns or franchises worldwide. Hooters Air was filling planes at the St. Petersburg airport and getting good fares - mostly from $129 to $189 one-way to Allentown and back, said Lagos. But the industry's financial woes have landed particularly hard on the smallest carriers. In addition to the two Pennsylvania airports and Myrtle Beach, the airline's Web site said Friday morning that it served the Fort-Lauderdale-Hollywood and St. Petersburg-Clearwater airports in Florida and the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where the future of service wasn't immediately clear.
© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note:
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