Edward Raymond Beauvais (November 13, 1936September 28, 2021) was a business executive known for his contributions to the US airline industry. In a career spanning over 40 years, he founded three airlines including

America West Airlines America West Airlines was a major American airline, founded in 1981, with service commencing in 1983, and having reached US$1 billion in annual revenue in 1989, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. At the time of its acquisition of US Airways, Americ ...

, which later merged with

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

Early life

Beauvais was born Edward Raymond Beauvais on November 13, 1936, in

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

. His family had French-Canadian heritage and had moved to the Colorado city, where his grandfather and father both had worked at the

Colorado Fuel and Iron The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was a large steel conglomerate founded by the merger of previous business interests in 1892.Scamehorn, Chapter 1, "The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1892-1903" page 10 By 1903 it was mainly owned and co ...

steel mill. He went to

Saint Joseph's College, Indiana Saint Joseph's College (SJC; colloquially, Saint Joe) is an unaccredited private Catholic college in Rensselaer, Indiana. It was founded in 1889 and suspended academic operations in 2017 with approximately 1,100 students enrolled. In 2021, the c ...

, on a sports scholarship and later moved over to

Regis University Regis University is a private Jesuit university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1877 by the Society of Jesus, the university offers more than 120 degrees through 5 colleges in a variety of subjects, including education, liberal arts, business, nu ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He was a talented athlete who started out playing baseball as a left-handed pitcher and a right-handed batter and was even drafted by the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

as he came out of high school. However, he went on to pick up

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and became an

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

Career

In a career spanning over 40 years, Beauvais founded three airline carriers including founding the Phoenix-based

which eventually went on to be acquired by

. Some of his pioneering features have now become mainstay features in modern day

low-cost carriers A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

. Beauvais started his career working in the accounts department at

before joining

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines is a major ultra-low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 100 destinations throughout the United States and 31 international destinations, and employs more than 3,000 staff. The ca ...

working in their finance department. He later moved on to

Bonanza Air Lines Bonanza Air Lines was an airline (known at the time as a "local service" air carrier as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) in the Western United States (and eventually Mexico) from 1945 until it merged with two other local service ai ...

and moved to

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, in 1966. He later changed careers to become a consultant in 1970 where he served clients including

Continental Airlines Continental Airlines, simply known as Continental, was a major United States airline founded in 1934 and eventually headquartered in Houston, Texas. It had ownership interests and brand partnerships with several carriers. Continental started o ...

and the

City of Phoenix Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the onl ...

. This was the time when the airline industry was seeing its

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

in 1978. In 1981, he co-founded

with his son

Mark Beauvais Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Finn ...

, Don Neilson, and Michael Roach. Deregulation of the industry had spawned other airline startups including

New York Air New York Air was a low-cost U.S. airline owned by Texas Air Corporation and based at Hangar 5 at LaGuardia Airport in Flushing, Queens, New York. It ceased operations on February 1, 1987, in a merger with Continental Airlines. New York Air ...

and

People Express Airlines People Express Airlines, stylized as PEOPLExpress, was a low-cost U.S. airline that operated from 1981 to 1987, when it was merged into Continental Airlines. The airline's headquarters was in the North Terminal (later Terminal C) of Newark ...

and had launched intense price competition with the incumbents. In this environment, he started the company with $2 million in seed money and three

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

jets which he had rented. The company was often referred to as the "pearl of deregulation" and "darling of deregulation". America West Airlines pioneered many low-cost features, including focusing on reducing costs by having flight attendants double-up as customer service representatives. The company also brought in the first of the industry's

yield management Yield management is a variable pricing strategy, based on understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, time-limited resource (such as airline seats or hotel room reservation ...

systems that aimed to maximize revenues by creating fare segments. During this time the company had the lowest cost-per-seat-mile in the industry and had one of the best on-time records. The company also enjoyed healthy relations with its employees and had become the largest carrier in Phoenix, surpassing

Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...

in its very first year. It grew its fleet to include jets flying outside of the American mainland to Hawaii and Japan. However, mounting costs and increasing fuel pressures including those stemming from the

First Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

resulted in the company heading to bankruptcy court in 1992. It was at this time that Beauvais stepped down from the company along with his son. The company, however, went on to shape the airline industry consolidation in the US. It first merged with

US Airways US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in History of aviation in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called ...

taking the US Airways brand name, and then merged with

to become what is, as of 2021, the world's largest carrier. Stepping down from America West in 1992, Beauvais started

Western Pacific Airlines Western Pacific Airlines, or WestPac, was an airline which operated in the United States from 1995 to 1998. A low-cost carrier, it was formed in 1994 under the name Commercial Air, later changed to Western Pacific, and began operating schedul ...

, based in Colorado, with his son Mark, and also started Mountain Air Express to serve the state's ski-tourism industry. Beauvais was named '' Inc.'' magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year in 1989 and was inducted in the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame in 2014.

Personal life

Beauvais married Mary Ellen (née Talbow) in 1957. The couple had met each other in high school where he was a baseball pitcher. The couple went on to have five children. He also had an elder fraternal twin. He continued to remain connected with athletics coaching his sons' little league teams. Beauvais died from a heart attack while at home on September 28, 2021. He was 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauvais, Ed 1936 births 2021 deaths American business executives Airline founders Business executives People from Pueblo, Colorado American people of French-Canadian descent American twins Regis University alumni Saint Joseph's College (Indiana) alumni