PEOPLExpress  Boeing 747-243B  N604PE               (c/n  19731)

                                    

                                        PEOPLExpress flew its first international service on 26 May 1983 from Newark to London.  For
                                        these routes a modest fleet of eight second hand Boeing 747-200s was acquired.   N604PE, seen
                                        here in another climbing away shot by Robert Campbell (Newark, September 1986) was originally
                                        built as I-DEMO for Alitalia in 1971.    Unfortunately the airline grew too quickly.  The idea was
                                        right but the execution left something to be desired.  Rampant overbooking (it really had no computer-
                                        ized reservations system) and lost luggage gave the wags to refer to it as "People's Distress".  Despite
                                        the loss of several key executives Burr persuaded the Board to purchase Frontier Airlines in Novem-
                                        ber of 1985.  Furthermore, to provide feeder services from Chicago and Newark, Britt Airways and
                                        Provincetown Boston Airline were both absorbed in 1986.   The net result was, after dissolving the
                                        remians of Frontier, PEOPLExpress was itself absorbed by the Texas Air group (from whence founder
                                        Donald Burr had come) at the end of 1986.   Most of its assets passed to Continental Airlines.