Express-Texas Air Merger OKd

Shareholders of financially troubled People Express Inc. today narrowly approved a $115-million merger with Texas Air Corp., People Express founder and Chairman Donald Burr announced.

The 53% vote by shareholders, about a third of them employees, was the final hurdle in Texas Air’s bid to take control of the pioneering cut-rate airline company. The approval makes Houston-based Texas Air by far the nation’s largest airline company and means the end of People Express.