The revived PEOPLExpress airline is set to return to the skies on June 30, the airline announced.
The airline will initially offer service from Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport to three cities: Boston, Pittsburgh and Newark, N.J. PEOPLExpress will add four additional destinations — West Palm Beach, Fla.; Atlanta; St. Petersburg, Fla.; and New Orleans — by Aug. 28, the airline announced.
Vision Airlines will fly Boeing 737-400 aircraft on behalf of PEOPLExpress. The airlines’ planes will bear the logo of the popular 1980s carrier of the same name, but will feature with a green livery.
“From the very beginning, PEOPLExpress was designed to provide a fun, creative and innovative approach to air travel to dispel the myth that low air fares have to mean low service or an impersonal experience,” Jeff Erickson, a long-time airline executive, said in a news release on behalf of the carrier. “PEOPLExpress is restoring the concepts of respect, value and excitement to the air travel experience.”
The 1980s iteration of PEOPLExpress, also known as People Express Airlines, operated between 1981 and 1987.
“I think there is a real opportunity as some of the other airlines are distracted by completing their merger or focusing on slots that came available,” Erickson said in an interview with NBC News. “Our entire focus has been to recreate the PEOPLExpress brand at airports that have a demonstrated a history of traffic but no longer have the service.”