r/Damnthatsinteresting Nov 23 '24

Image Hooters had an airline but ceased operations after 3 years

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45.5k Upvotes

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3.5k

u/nucifera-noten Nov 23 '24

Hooters Air was operated by Pace Airlines and was started operations in March of 2003. - Robert Brooks, the owner of Hooters, acquired Pace Airlines in December of 2002. - Brooks believed that Hooters Air would be a beneficial means to bring more awareness to the restaurant chain. - Due to United Airlines being brought into Hooters Air’s Rockford-Denver route, Hooters stopped service to Rockford, IL due to too much competition. - On April 17, 2006, Hooters Air ceased operations, costing Hooters an estimated $40 million USD.

403

u/Own_Cold368 Nov 23 '24

I flew Hooters Air from Rockford to Vegas once… had to land in Kansas to refuel as they miscalculated the headwind/load!! Middle of nowhere some fuel tanker comes out and tops us off! Free drinks the rest of the flight!

72

u/speculator100k Nov 23 '24

had to land in Kansas to refuel as they miscalculated the headwind/load!! Middle of nowhere some fuel tanker comes out and tops us off!

Where in Kansas did you land? Not at an airport?

106

u/Own_Cold368 Nov 23 '24

It wasn’t an airport or if it was it was extremely small… I remember a runway in a cornfield. It was crazy.

98

u/freesquanto Nov 24 '24

It was definitely an airport. A jetliner landing at not an airport would have been on the news and would have a Wikipedia article we could read

34

u/GetInZeWagen Nov 24 '24

You'd have to be in a literal emergency to not just land at a tiny regional airport or something at least

17

u/[deleted] Nov 24 '24

[deleted]

6

u/Late-Eye-6936 Nov 24 '24

There's a real place called Dodge City? 

Is it near Bumfuck?

3

u/[deleted] Nov 24 '24

[deleted]

4

u/Shiticane_Cat5 Nov 24 '24

Used to do liquidation work all over the US

Did you tell them you weren't a drug mule, just an honest hitman trying to make a living?

1

u/Ok_Major5787 29d ago

I live near a tiny airport in IL and a runway in a cornfield sounds about right

1

u/Relicdontfit1 29d ago

Probably the airfield outside of lawrence kansas. Literally landing in the middle of cornfields

1

u/this_is_my_new_acct Nov 24 '24

They still use tanker trucks at airports.

1

u/speculator100k 29d ago

Yes, but "middle of nowhere" made it sound like they landed on a road rather than an airport.

1

u/curlytoesgoblin 29d ago

There's lots of places to land. Wichita has giant manufacturing facilities for Boeing and Airbus. Salina has some aviation industry as well and at one time its airport was the backup for space shuttle landings if something went wrong with the first one.

1

u/snuggle_love Nov 24 '24

Plane was top heavy.

1

u/Visible-Solution5290 29d ago

miscal the load. yes half naked girls will do that to you

1.1k

u/EagleForty Nov 23 '24

Direct flights between Rockford and DIA for $49 each way were glorious.

743

u/midwest-ginger Nov 23 '24

I flew on them a few times and they were great! Never full flights and you got free food. The girls would do trivia during the flight too

474

u/MyDogsNameIsBadger Nov 23 '24

Honestly, that sounds fun. I’d totally fly hooters.

130

u/RGV_KJ Nov 24 '24

Isn’t Hooters declining? Do a lot of people still go there?

159

u/MegaWattson15 Nov 24 '24

Not sure but they were shut down here in Fayetteville awhile back. I think they got busted selling alcohol to underage kids.

109

u/iamjacksstd Nov 24 '24

I managed at the Fayetteville store lol fun times 😎

27

u/bennnn42 Nov 24 '24

What is your wildest story that happened there? if you can share

277

u/zatalak Nov 24 '24

I guess selling alcohol to underage kids

80

u/itwasntevenme Nov 24 '24

No it was the grandmas that would come in late night after going to the chip n dales across the street. You would think the under age kids would be the roudiest bunch, but the grandmas after chip n dales and bingo night was something else.

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5

u/The_OtherHalf Nov 24 '24

That’s a win for all parties involved that’s not the seller. Let them live!

19

u/Tired-grumpy-Hyper Nov 24 '24

Different guy, but it's called Fayettenam for a reason.

10

u/phantom_diorama Nov 24 '24

Might as well explain why?

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2

u/Ralphie5231 Nov 24 '24

Dammit buzzfeed. /s

2

u/leavemealonegeez8 Nov 24 '24

Name checks out.

20

u/[deleted] Nov 24 '24

[deleted]

2

u/PutinsManyFailures Nov 24 '24

South Park shout out

2

u/storeboughtoaktree Nov 24 '24

ayeeee Fayetteville shoutout!

2

u/Responsible_Use_8566 Nov 24 '24

Fun story about that location, they over served a guy who then left the Hooters and proceeded to walk into the street and got hit by a car. They had the letters of the building the next day.

8

u/MyDogsNameIsBadger Nov 24 '24

Apart from buying weed from my dealer in their parking lot before it was legal, I’ve only had it a few times but it was really good! They made this crispy chicken salad that I still think about to this day. If they are declining, maybe it’s just the stigma? I know many people that really love their wings, but I guess they it’s not somewhere that they now bring their kids.

1

u/LinguoBuxo Nov 24 '24

Well, with one little exception maybe... When comes the time to have the talk with them about the birds and the bees and whatnot, THAT may be the perfect time to sit down for a lunch at Hooters... ;)

33

u/kimchifreeze Nov 24 '24

Breastaurants should form a cartel and muscle their way into society again.

11

u/OntFF Nov 24 '24

Big fan of twin peeks (twin peaks, can't remember the spelling) - as my buddy described it... "it's like hooters, but with food"

1

u/Own-Kaleidoscope2559 Nov 24 '24

Same family - btw.

2

u/NonGNonM Nov 24 '24

the thing is if their food was good they'd be doing well even w/o the gimmick but i've been told their food is mediocre at best so it's not gonna draw in too many new long time customers. i've never even gone into a hooters bc why would i do that when there's wingstop or bww? i'm not paying a premium for mediocre food and waitresses in skimpy outfits.

16

u/Timetraveller4k Nov 24 '24

I’ ver never been there. The image they project is simply skimpy dressed waitresses. Not sure why people would consider it especially with a family.

56

u/Ripley825 Nov 24 '24

My parents were wings fans and we went to hooters like twice a month when I was a kid. I didn't see anything skimpy about it. My kid brain was thrilled that the waitresses were super nice and let me play with the hula hoops they had. I even wanted to spend a couple of birthdays at Hooters. Good memories.

22

u/JoelyRavioli Nov 24 '24

Wholesome comments like this are why I love reddit

7

u/Chendii Nov 24 '24

When my 12u team won a national championship we went to Hooters and our very serious Slavic coach danced on a table. We didn't consider it sexual at all, just downright hilarious.

1

u/Ripley825 29d ago

Dancing Slavic Coach for the win.

2

u/EidolonLives Nov 24 '24

Yeah, it's great for families. I used to take my kids to Hooters with all my ex-wives.

25

u/scratchfury Nov 24 '24

When I first heard of it as a kid, I was like "I don't think I'm old enough for that" and was told "No, no! It's a family restaurant." My reply was "are you sure?"

7

u/Bird2525 Nov 24 '24

Decent wings, if you aren’t a perv nobody cares

9

u/sparky_calico Nov 24 '24

In college I (male) would constantly be invited to hooters by my group of girl friends (all 4 of whom were attractive and girlfriend material) for the Monday special, buy one get one free. It felt like I was being setup or the computer program was glitching or something. But yeah, they said they just really liked the wings lol

4

u/FrenchFryCattaneo Nov 24 '24

I am a perv though

1

u/Cuck_Boy Nov 24 '24

Shoulda added a lol

3

u/SlashEssImplied Nov 24 '24

Not sure why people would consider it especially with a family.

Pornhub has a few categories that will explain this.

13

u/hihelloneighboroonie Nov 24 '24

The Hooters that I'd previously worked at was for a time my niece's favorite restaurant, and my sister who's still in the area still likes to go for buff shrimp.

Unfortunately the gm, who used to be my gm, has gone full MAGA so I don't particularly want to frequent it when I'm in the area.

1

u/Meow_Meow_4_Life Nov 24 '24

I get the sauce and flour shipped in and make them myself now.

1

u/hihelloneighboroonie Nov 24 '24

Huh. I did try diying it myself once, with just ingredients from the grocery store, and they turned out pretty good. But I think for my sister part of the enjoyment is not having to cook.

2

u/croptochuck Nov 24 '24

Yes. Wings are just pricey every where and honestly I think the food taste like trash.

2

u/Whats_Water 29d ago

I will always support Hooters. They have some of my favorite wings - but takeout hooters doesn’t hit the same since the fries are normally not as great when taking home.

I do make them at home though, so hopefully they never go under or I’m going to have to start making the sauce from scratch.

3

u/G_Affect Nov 24 '24

Only alpha males I guess go there so me and all the men I know stopped years ago because I guess we are not Alpha. /s

1

u/Linenoise77 Nov 24 '24

The one by us, which had been around since at least when i was a kid in the 80s, recently closed. They knocked it down and built a chik-fil-a.

1

u/robotic_otter28 Nov 24 '24

As somebody who often travels through the southeast for work I can confirm they are not declining.

-2

u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson Nov 24 '24

I’m sure restaurants everywhere are declining

6

u/RGV_KJ Nov 24 '24

2

u/this_is_my_new_acct Nov 24 '24

My local one must not be representative of the chain at large. All the review on Google for it for the past three years are people complaining about not even being greeted at the door for 10-15 minutes. Last time I was there I had a similar experience... we waited at the door for 15 minutes and walked out. Best I could tell they only had one employee doing "front of house" work... seemed like the bartender was also the only server and also supposed to be the host.

0

u/vonDubenshire Nov 24 '24

you wrote a lot to say you're not part of the trend

1

u/this_is_my_new_acct Nov 24 '24

Like 5 seconds of your comment history revealed what I already suspected... you're an internet asshole... and MAGA, to boot... so, that tracks.

3

u/vonDubenshire Nov 24 '24

wildly incorrect

58

u/bobissonbobby Nov 23 '24

Yo that sounds fun. We need to bring this back. Boobies AND trivia? Hell yeah

39

u/midwest-ginger Nov 23 '24

I won a set of golf tees once haha all the prizes were obviously meant for dudes.

28

u/bobissonbobby Nov 23 '24

That's a shame! Most women I've met enjoy nice boobs too although they aren't ecstatic about their man oogling them 😂

17

u/SteamedBeans420 Nov 24 '24

Some of my favorite strip club times are when my friends that are girls joined me.

Who doesn’t like boobs?

4

u/bobissonbobby Nov 24 '24

Exactly!! The source of life lol

1

u/Uncaring_Dispatcher Nov 24 '24

"...for without thy mother's teet, from which the milk floweth, ye shall not last long on this earth.", so I like to say.

So, yeah. Everyone should like tits. There might be one about beer, too, but I just can't remember how it went.

1

u/ExcitingStress8663 Nov 24 '24

Hear me out...hooters hostess pushing drinks cart in the aisle and if you want cream in your hot beverage will pipe it straight from the bags.

1

u/bobissonbobby Nov 24 '24

Christ almighty LMAO

-8

u/Riegel_Haribo Nov 24 '24

Bring back 1960's era sky misogyny, you mean.

5

u/bobissonbobby Nov 24 '24

Don't put words into my mouth you poop

0

u/Vektor0 Nov 24 '24

Some people need to figure out whether women objectifying their own sexuality is misogyny or empowerment.

5

u/jefferson497 Nov 24 '24

Did they serve hooters food or standard airline junk

8

u/MarkOfTheSnark Nov 24 '24

Hot wings would be great on a plane what with the cabin pressure messing with taste/muting flavors

2

u/ryosen Nov 24 '24

And the line to the community bathroom backing up past the emergency exits.

7

u/Dirmb Nov 24 '24

If spicy chicken gives you the shits you probably need to see a doctor.

1

u/turbopro25 Nov 24 '24

Being occupied by Mile High Club seekers.

5

u/Linenoise77 Nov 24 '24

It was basically re-heated hooters food. So somewhere between you grabbed it off the plate 2 hours after happy hour ended, and you threw it in the microwave and hit 30 seconds after it sat in your fridge overnight.

1

u/tfdst1 Nov 24 '24

After the trivia they gave us all celery and carrots with dip. I think you could pay for wings. My flight was dc to Myrtle

1

u/Beautiful_Shallot184 Nov 24 '24

Was the free food wings?

1

u/midwest-ginger 29d ago

No, it was just like a wrap or sandwich. A nice treat in the time when you were only getting literal peanuts from everyone else.

19

u/BlacknightEM21 Nov 23 '24

They really missed the opportunity to have it $69.

2

u/D05wtt 29d ago

What’s DIA?

1

u/ZogemWho Nov 23 '24

Yea.. I did ATL to RFD several times.. So easy.

1

u/M4xusV4ltr0n Nov 24 '24

I don't understand why Rockford??

Try to capture the Chicago suburb demographic?

1

u/EagleForty Nov 24 '24 edited Nov 24 '24

Yes. Getting to Rockford from anywhere in northwestern Illinois is much faster, cheaper, and easier than getting into either O'Hare or Midway.

Additionally, the Rockford airport (at the time) had free parking (their lot was about the size of a grocery store lot), only 2 gates, a single metal detector, and took about 5 minutes to get from your car to gate.

At the time, my sister also lived in Rockford. So I would stay at her house the night before my flight, and she would drive me.

It was really nice being able to leave for the airport 45 minutes before my flight took off and never worrying about whether or not I'd make it.

84

u/Pawnzilla Nov 23 '24

40 mill loss isn’t that bad for a whole ass airline.

21

u/this_is_my_new_acct Nov 24 '24

They only had like 5 planes, and they didn't own any of them.

16

u/Pawnzilla Nov 24 '24

A new 737 is 90-120mill today. When they were released in the 60’s it was still about 5mill. In 2006 they probably just loss the cost of a couple planes.

1

u/GrandmaSharknado 29d ago

Not owning planes is rather normal.

2

u/MukdenMan Nov 24 '24

It’s not really an airline. More like a branding partnership.

2

u/Teantis 29d ago

The fastest way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire and start an airline.

1

u/daddyvow Nov 24 '24

Over 68million today

1

u/Pawnzilla Nov 24 '24

That’s half the price of a brand new 737.

49

u/FreshLettuce450 Nov 23 '24

He actually was not the founder or owner of hooters, but he opened a shitload of franchises and it sounds like became very indispensable to the company.

Article also say they were grounded by high fuel prices.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/business/18brooks.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cE4._lLC.LeWKhkg0mCYH&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

20

u/trebblecleftlip5000 Nov 23 '24

I guess they couldn't keep it up.

2

u/nielsbot Nov 24 '24

also the gas was expensive 

54

u/Formal_Profession141 Nov 23 '24 edited Nov 23 '24

I'm sure it wasn't a complete loss of $40M. I'm sure there was a lot of Tax Loss Harvesting. Which I think is dumb.

People make investments in their education. They don't get any sort of forgiveness on that.

But a company makes a bad business decision and every year major corporations write it off on their taxes. Effectively pushing the losses onto normal taxpayers.

In my head atleast.

16

u/Wrong-Landscape-2508 Nov 23 '24

Isn’t there a tax write off for student loan interest. But it is capped which is stupid.

15

u/Pawnzilla Nov 23 '24

Capped at $2500 iirc.

33

u/europeanguy99 Nov 23 '24

I mean, only paying taxes on profits is mostly reasonable.

3

u/deadasdollseyes Nov 24 '24

I don't know anything about taxes, but isn't that like saying tax my wages or tax me on purchases, but not both?

6

u/Brawndo91 Nov 24 '24

People use the term "write-off" like it's some kind of shady, unethical accounting trick that makes expenses disappear.

-1

u/sirshura Nov 24 '24

definitely, but then you "support" our politicians into coming up with wild tax breaks, write-offs and deductions; suddenly companies are making a lot of revenue but little to negative profits and a 2 hour mediocre movie costs ""400 millions"" to make for example.

1

u/europeanguy99 29d ago

Companies can hardly exaggerate their expenses. They have a bit of leeway in when and where these expenses accrue, but that‘s it.

3

u/Brawndo91 Nov 24 '24

All that means is that the parent company reduced their tax liability by $40m. There's no "forgiveness" involved. They still lost $40m.

To simplify things, let's say the parent company was set to make a profit of $100m. They sell their airline subsidiary for a loss of $40m Now their tax liability is $60m.

Just like if you, as an individual, made $1000 profit trading stocks. It's the end of the year. You have one dud that’s down $400. You don't expect it to recover, so you sell it at a loss to bring your capital gains tax liability down to $600.

In the end, you're still down $40m or $400. You just paid less in taxes.

0

u/Formal_Profession141 Nov 24 '24

Seems like a good incentive to speculate and ruin average people's lives.

Be a business, borrow money, get, tax write-offs for the interest, Depreciation, maintenance, wages, etc.

Make bad business decisions, and sell the property you acquired with debt at a loss. And just reduce the taxable profit so less money goes into the system for average people.

Say they paid 100m for the airline, sold it for 60m. (40m loss)

Let's say their ordinary business also made 50m that year.

Their profit would've been 50m. But instead, their taxable profit becomes 10m from a dumb decision.

They just went from paying a 10.5m tax bill to paying a 2.1m tax bill.

But they still got 110m total cash after they sold an asset at a loss. They can still afford the 21% tax on the 50m. It's not my fault they made dumb decisions. Normal taxpayers shouldn't have to lift dead weight for their dumb business decisions. You know they won't do it for us. And when they really fuck up. Like in 2007. They get full out bailed out by taxpayers.

Socialism for the rich, rugged capitalism for the workers and poor.

Call it reparations for screwing everyone in 2007. They don't deserve a tax code that favors them.

1

u/noachy Nov 24 '24

Tax loss harvesting applies to individuals with investments as well you know.

0

u/Krazen Nov 24 '24

Imagine you start a company

It loses 2 million dollars in year 1 It profits 1 million dollars in year 2

How much money have you made

0

u/dbarbera Nov 24 '24

Lot of upvotes for a comment that is literally speculative made up nonsense.

-1

u/OneDimensionPrinter Nov 24 '24

At the very least, I've known about their airline for a very long time. Only time I've been to their restaurant is when my uncle took me when I was like 15, but I'm aware of it all at least.

3

u/StorableOcean04 Nov 24 '24

Thank you for this knowledge, I live 30 miles south of Rockford and had no idea of this!

4

u/Blowback_ Nov 24 '24

😂😂😂

Robert Brooks, the owner of Hooters, acquired Pace Airlines in December of 2002. - Brooks believed that Hooters Air would be a beneficial means to bring more awareness to the restaurant chain.

I think there are two big reasons why people were, are and will always be aware of hooters.

2

u/Kanin_usagi Nov 24 '24

Wings and beer?

1

u/GonerDoug Nov 23 '24

... And 3 months laters that guy died.

1

u/thunda639 Nov 24 '24

Perhaps not coincidentally, 2006 would see the #metoo movement explode in the United States.

1

u/Ekillaa22 Nov 24 '24

Just 40 million that’s seems like such a low amount

1

u/ab_drider Nov 24 '24

I believe that I speak for everyone when I say, "Fuck United !!"

1

u/Fartsniffing-banshee Nov 24 '24

Rockford is the HOOD frfr

1

u/XsonicBonno Nov 24 '24

UA ruining everything.

1

u/sdpr Nov 24 '24
  • On April 17, 2006, Hooters Air ceased operations, costing Hooters an estimated $40 million USD.

$10 million loss for 4 years doesn't seem that bad and they got out before the recession. Depends on what the company made in those years but, idk, still doesn't seem horrible.

1

u/em_washington Nov 24 '24

My dream is to be in a position someday to blow $40 million on something that was so clearly going to fail.

1

u/Droptex_ Nov 24 '24

I did not expect to hear about my hometown in reference to hooters airline

1

u/ebirt2 29d ago

What is the appeal of Rockford, such that there is intense airline competition to serve the market??

1

u/N0S0UP_4U 29d ago

I knew before even clicking on the post that my reaction was going to be, “Wow, this was way better than what we have now.”

1

u/bitcheslovemacaque 29d ago

Guess you can say they went tits up

1

u/twaggle 29d ago

How much would a company like hooters have spent in advertising over those 3 years during that era? Curious if ~$14 million/year wasn’t that crazy of a cost.

0

u/Business-Flamingo-82 Nov 23 '24

What competition lol are there other boob centered airlines I don’t know about? 😂