Hooters Air was by far one of the strangest airlines to have ever existed. The airline was well known for its strange business model and for its innuendo-filled slogans like “Fly a mile high with us!”
Although it wasn’t really a threat to most other airlines, whether legacy carriers or low cost carriers, it was fairly popular. At least for the first few years…
Pre-Formation
Prior to the formation of Hooters Air, there was Hooters Inc. and Hooters of America.
Originally, Hooters Inc was established as the main company behind the Hooters brand. However, in 1984, the Hooters founders sold the franchising rights to Robert Brooks and a group of Atlanta investors, forming Hooters of America.
Hooters of America would then expand the company into the food chain it is known as today. This made Robert Brooks and his fellow investors extremely wealthy men, allowing them to diversify their brand.
In 1996, Jerome Pace, a former Piedmont Airlines and Leisure Air executive decided to form his own airline. Pace named his new airline after himself, forming Pace Airlines, an executive charter airline.
Originally, this airline would perform charter operations for Winston-Salem’s corporations, executives, sports teams and entertainers, taking them all across the country.
To do this, Pace acquired a former Western Airlines 737-200. Soon after, he added a Vickers Viscount, and three more 737s (one 737-200, two 737-300s). For the remainder of the 1990’s, Pace continued to grow, adding more aircraft to its fleet.
Formation
In 2002, Robert Brooks began looking for an airline to compliment his other Hooters-themed holdings. At the time, his other holdings mostly included casinos, which were all designed near or around Hooters restaurant chains.
Originally, Brooks approached Vanguard Airlines, which was on the brink of collapse. However, the then-owners refused to allow him to buy their assets as they didn’t agree with a Hooters-themed airline.
Instead, Brooks turned his attention elsewhere. This was to the similarly struggling Pace Airlines, who’s charter operations had suffered as a result of the Dot Com bubble bursting in the early 2000’s.
By the end of 2002, Pace had agreed to sell the airline to Brooks, who would use his money to keep the airline afloat. He would subsequently bring in a team of airline executives for the task of making Hooters Air a reality.
Pace Airlines, how operating under the Hooters name, had most of their marketing material rebranded by the end of 2002. At the same time, their aircraft were painted in Hooters livery as well.
Brooks decided that he would make the airline industry even more casual than it already was (at least compared to the Golden Age of Aviation). To do this, he would market the airline at golfers, mainly to use Myrtle Beach’s golf resorts.
On top of this, the airline would also feature two “Hooters girls”, like you’d get in the restaurant. These girls would act as flight attendants, alongside other traditionally-dressed flight attendants.
History
Although its history was short, Robert Brooks and Hooters of America made sure that its history would extremely well documented, and very detailed!
Early History
Robert Brooks’ new airline was ready by early 2003. On March 6 2003, Robert Brooks officially launched Hooters Air, both as an airline and as a publicity stunt to get more people going to Hooters restaurants.
The new airline would fly routes previously operated by Pace Airlines. However, many of them were abandoned in favor of new routes to Myrtle Beach and other places with large golfing communities.
Within a month of operating, the airline had proven to be quite successful. This saw them add daily flights to more locations, as well as adding many of the routes they had abandoned only months previously.
One of these newly acquired routes was to Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas. This route would serve as the first (and only) international route of the carrier, which was initially very popular.
In late 2004, the airline tried to expand once again. This expansion came after Hooters partnered with Suntrips, who wanted to operate flights between the West Coast and Hawaii, using a 757-200.
This saw the airline get all necessary paperwork done, including filing the paperwork with the FAA. This cost the airline a great deal of money, and whilst approved, the airline never utilized the route after the partnership disintegrated
Later History
February 2005 saw the airline’s last expansion. This time, the airline expanded to Rockford, Illinois. Hooters only operated this route as the local airport authority promised to subsidize the airline, ensuring profits on that route.
However, by December 2005, the airline was forced to leave Rockford due to too much competition. Unbeknownst to Hooters at the time, their deal was also offered to the much larger United Airlines, who dominated the routes.
The Summer of 2005 also saw a large increase in jet fuel price. This hit all carriers hard, but especially those smaller, independent carriers such as Hooters Air.
As a result, the airline was forced to pull out of several of their longer haul routes. This was mostly attributed to the higher fuel prices, which resulted in Hooters putting their own prices up, resulting in several empty flights.
In August 2005, the carrier attempted to expand to higher-density, short-haul routes in order to effectively use their aircraft. Some of these were successful whilst others weren’t. However, it wouldn’t last too long…
This all culminated in January 2006. A culmination of several different problems caused the airline to cease all commercial operations in January 2006, before being dissolved in March 2006.
The Problem
Several problems plagued the airline since its beginning. Some of these issues were more problematic than others. Some of these issues caused headaches for the Hooters management, whilst others caused bad publicity.
Perhaps the most famous problem was the lawsuits. The most famous of these were the two college students who sued Robert Brooks for “stealing” their idea.
Allegedly, several years prior to buying Pace Airlines, two college students had approached Robert Brooks about having a Hooters-themed airline. However, Brooks said no, and years later bought Pace Airlines to form Hooters Air.
In the eyes of the two college students, this was him essentially stealing their idea without giving them credit. As such, they sued him, which was highly publicized at the time, although they were ultimately unsuccessful.
On top of this, several low cost carriers, including Southwest Airlines, began offering the same routes at vastly reduced rates. This eventually made operating these routes unprofitable, slowly closing down route after route.
In the Autumn of 2005, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita caused severe damage to several airports that the airline operated to. This caused the airline to lose a large portion of its revenue for several months.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, 2005 and 2006 saw incredibly high fuel prices (compared to previous years) which began to eat into the airline’s profits. On April 17 2006, Hooters Air was dissolved by Robert Brooks.
Charter Service
Despite ceasing commercial operations in April 2006, the airline’s parent company, Pace Airlines (still owned by Hooters at the time) continued its own operations under its own name.
For three more years, Pace Airlines would operate ad hoc charter flights using formerly Hooters aircraft. For the most part, the pilots and (some of) the ground crew were former Hooters employees.
However, in September 2009, with the strains of the Great Recession, Pace Airlines itself was forced to close down. This was due to no one chartering Pace Airlines jets, as most people/companies didn’t have the money to.
What Was it Like to Fly on Hooters Air?
Whenever I cover a defunct airline, I like to interview someone who was a frequent flyer on the airline, both before and after the takeover. Unfortunately, I never flew on the airline myself.
Despite this, I was still able to interview Christopher Harrow, the Editor-in-Chief of International Aviation HQ. Christopher flew on the airline a total of two times, once as Pace Airlines before the takeover and once afterwards as Hooters Air.
When I interviewed him about the airline, he had this to say about the airline:
When it was Pace, it was very well organized. I may have taken off from a passenger airport, but it felt as though I was taking off from a private jet terminal.
As a pilot, I tend to notice things about the flying that most other passengers don’t, and not in a good way. However, I actually didn’t mind the flying from Pace, it seemed incredibly professional from where I was sitting.
After Robert Brooks’ takeover, the airline changed overnight. The service became more eye candy than it did actual service, I mean, they were nice and all, but hopelessly inadequate for the job.
I don’t know if Brooks got rid of the Pace pilots, because the flying that was previously smooth, became rather, choppy. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that the trim didn’t work, because the aircraft was constantly changing pitch.
However, the normally-dressed flight attendants were quite good at their job and were still quite courteous. The inflight meals were also (somewhat) edible, which I didn’t expect.
How Safe Was Hooters Air?
Despite no longer operating flights in any capacity whatsoever, it is still important to understand how safe or dangerous the airline was.
In its very short three year history, the airline had a grand total of zero crashes. This makes it, by all accounts, one of the safest airlines you could’ve flown on. Every flight was guaranteed to land without incident.
On top of this, there were no major incidents involving the airline. According to those with “inside” knowledge, the Federal Air Marshals rarely sent marshals on to Hooters flights, however, this is unsubstantiated.
With that being said, the airline operated a fleet of very dangerous aircraft, in particular their fleet of two 737-200s and four 737-300s, with the former having a long and detailed history of crashes and incidents.
The only thing that really saved the airline was its fleet of one 757-200, which is well known for being one of the safest aircraft to have ever flown.
It must also be noted that, unlike other airline executives, Robert Brooks didn’t travel on his own airline. However, this was due to Brooks rarely flying in the first place, after losing one of his sons in a plane crash.
Legacy
Despite only being active for a few years, Hooters Air did have a long lasting legacy on not only Hooters of America, but also the airline industry as a whole too!
Airline Industry
For the most part, most carriers didn’t really take much notice of the airline at the time. For the most part, they viewed it as a billionaire’s way of wasting a lot of money on publicity, that didn’t really come.
However, once Hooters Air had ceased, and the airline reverted back to Pace Airlines, the airline was very much a threat. Pace Airlines, both before and after the takeover, popularized executive air charter.
Whilst private jet chartering existed, private jets weren’t nearly as big for some corporations. As such, they often needed to rent out a passenger airliner in order to fly a large number of employees out.
Pace Airlines saw this, and decided to cut out the middle man: the airlines. Instead, they had 737s in an all first class configuration. This saw some of North Carolina’s largest corporations become some of their best clientele.
Other aviation entrepreneurs saw this and were similarly inspired to do the same thing. This has since birthed an industry that is separate, yet very much still related to the business jet chartering industry.
In September 2009, a bankrupt Pace Airlines sold all of its ageing fleet. Many of these aircraft ended up in the hands of smaller, regional carriers like Aloha Airlines, or in the hands of airlines in third world countries.
Hooters
Robert Brooks had initially envisaged the airline as a “flying billboard” for Hooters of America chains, as well as a way to diversify his holdings. Whilst the airline was mostly profitable (for the first few years), it was very much a failure.
The general consensus at Hooters is that whilst the airline was a good attempt, and people certainly haven’t forgotten it, it wasn’t the best use of resources.
According to a friend of mine who is middle management at Hooters, there is relatively little evidence to suggest that the airline boosted sales at Hooters chains in any way.
In total, it is estimated that Hooters of American lost roughly $40 million in the long run. This isn’t counting the legal fees that Mr. Brooks himself faced as a result of launching the airline, or those for when he was sued.
Today, many within Hooters of America remember the airline fondly. A quick eBay search for Hooters Air memorabilia will still yield several results, although many are seen as collector’s items.
What do you think of Hooters Air? Tell me in the comments!