The Rise and Fall of the Hooters Airline

Sometimes, when you dive into ideas of the past, they can throw a pretty interesting twist on what reality is today as we know it. The Hooters franchise obviously is one that is quite successful as it has spread far and wide, offering locations across the US and in various other locations around the world. You could probably even argue that they’re one of the most recognizable restaurant brands that you’ll find anywhere. However, as we know it today, Hooters is mainly just that, a restaurant chain that might sell a little merchandise. It wasn’t always like that, though, as it turned out, the people behind it tried to spread out their wings a little bit and dive into other markets.

One of those markets that you might not have heard of for the simple fact that it only lasted three years is that of Hooters air. Basically, the concept was to take some of the themes that you could find at a Hooters restaurant and apply them to an airline. However, because of a lack of communication as to what the customer would actually end up getting with the experience, the low fare airline would end up having to close the doors not too long later. It seemed like a noble idea, especially when you consider the success of the restaurant, however, the execution just really seemed to be lackluster.

The video below takes the liberty of dissecting Hooters Air, limb from limb, as it assesses exactly what the restaurant/airliner chain tried to accomplish and where they came up short.

It really provides some insight as to the goals here in what could’ve been done differently to perhaps to keep Hooters Air up above the ground. However, as history unfolded, that simply would not be the case in reality.