Letter To The Editor

Letter to the editor from a former People Express employee.

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Dear Sir:

Once again it is time for my yearly request as to the whereabouts of your favorite 1980s poster child, former People Express president Donald Burr. Rumor has it that he is writing the Big Book, sifting through the wreckage of his airline for some half-baked theory of how the American work force let him down. As a former People Express employee, I submit that an examination of the flight recorder will show the cause of the crash to have been his own growing boredom and recklessness, which led to a head-to-head confrontation with the big boys and ended with Burr getting his tail waxed. Sorry, Don. We stopped crying for you then, and we won't cry for you now, and we certainly won't pay $21.95 for the book.

Not pining for the old days,

Thomas E. Hauber,

Flight Officer, United Airlines

Donald Burr is alive and well, and lecturing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. He recently returned from South Africa, where he was working with a coalition of U.S. and South African business and cultural leaders concerned about creating an economic and educational infrastructure for black South Africans. As in the past, he served on the national panel of judges in this year's Entrepreneur of the Year competition. He is indeed working on a book about People Express, price still to be determined. I understand he is also drafting a business plan for the first crewless airline.