By Dahleen Glanton, Chicago Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Mar. 7--MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.--Adding a new dimension to the old concept of niche marketing, the Hooters restaurant chain made its debut in the airline industry Thursday, seeking to prove that young women in low-cut tank tops and orange hot pants can keep its planes flying while others are struggling to stay in the air.
Hooters Air, which is starting out with one daily round-trip flight from the golf resort city of Myrtle Beach to Atlanta, is the latest in a wave of start-up airlines trying to capitalize on the faltering airline industry by capturing specific customers with lower prices, comfortable seating and entertainment.
But while airlines such as the successful New York-based Jet Blue entice business travelers with leather seats and personal satellite TVs, Hooters is aimed at fun-loving golfers who enjoy a game of trivia led by a smiling Hooters girl.
Though it is a risky concept in this politically correct era, the idea of using sex appeal as a lure has generated a loyal following of men who flock to the sports theme restaurants to munch on hot wings while ogling the scantily clad waitresses.
Bob Brooks, chairman of Hooters of America Inc., which owns the restaurants and the airline, offers no apologies for the sexual themes that have turned the restaurant chain into a profitable empire and the subject of sexual discrimination controversies in its 20-year history.
'We've heard the comments about Hooters girls and sex, but Hooters has a certain demographics that is good for us,' said Brooks, who purchased a fleet of 17 aircraft from North Carolina-based Pace Airlines last year. 'We don't expect to appeal to everyone, but we think we can get a good number of golfers to try us. With everything going on in the world, our goal is to make people smile. We know how to do that.'
Hooters is not the first airline to use sex appeal to sell tickets. That honor goes to Southwest Airlines, which grew from a small carrier serving Dallas, Houston and San Antonio in 1971 to the nation's only profitable major carrier, serving 59 airports.
'When we started, the majority of people traveling with us were men on expense accounts. We made no secret about playing into that. We had very attractive flight attendants in hot pants and go-go boots,' said Southwest spokeswoman Beth Harbin. 'Today, there are more people able to travel because of the low fares, and our uniforms have been modified. Now they wear khaki walking shorts and polo shirts in the summer.'
While the hot paints may have helped to get Southwest off the ground, it kept flying because it diversified to the point where it no longer is a niche airline, analysts said.
'There are precedents that suggest that women being exploited does sell tickets. But Pacific Southwest Airlines tried the same thing and was bought out by U.S. Air,' said Aaron Gellman, a professor at Northwestern University's Transportation Center in the Kellogg School of Management. 'You can't survive being a small carrier. The economy demands that you grow to a certain size to be successful.'
Even the larger carriers are getting on the niche bandwagon. Delta Airlines next month will launch a new low-fare subsidiary called Song, designed to compete with Southwest, Air Train and Jet Blue. Other major airlines, including United, are considering similar ventures.
While Hooters' prices are comparable to those offered by Delta and Air Tran in its market, it has a policy that all seats cost the same, no matter where they are on the plane or when they were purchased. On major airlines, prices tend to be higher the closer they are purchased to departure. Hooters plans to add a round-trip flight between Atlanta and Newark, N.J., in two weeks and another round trip between Myrtle Beach and Atlanta next month. Terry Tripper, an airline analyst at Cheapseats.com, said making the airline work would be difficult.
'Everything is like show business now, you've got to have a gimmick,' Tripper said. 'The chicken wings could be the type of gimmick that would catch on, but not the girls. Maybe the girls will fall along the wayside.'
The problem is that hot wings aren't served on the planes because the airline hasn't figured out a way to keep them warm during the flight.
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(c) 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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