People Express Takes Record LossPeople Express Inc....

People Express Takes Record Loss

People Express Inc. reported Tuesday that it lost a record $74.5 million in the second quarter of the year.

The figure exceeded the $58-million loss in the first quarter for the cash-starved company, which recently decided to abandon its single-fare, no-frills policies to improve its chances of surviving.

Second-quarter revenue totaled $338.5 million. In the same period a year ago, the airline holding company earned $13 million on revenue of $242.7 million.

The company said this year’s second-quarter loss included a $7.1-million non-cash charge to earnings from a poor exchange rate that affected securities it issued in Switzerland.

People Express, headquartered in Newark, N.J., is the parent of four airlines: People Express, Frontier, Provincetown-Boston and Britt.