Given the airline industry's fundamentals--rising prices and full planes--low-priced airlines should be in first-class condition. They're not. In the aftermath of the ValuJet disaster last year, air travelers began to redefine "no frills" airlines as "no safety" airlines. In the six-month period after the crash, their bookings went into free fall, taking their stock prices along for the ride.
Launching a carrier into this turbulence isn't much more difficult than flying a kite in a hurricane. Yet Martin Shugrue, no stranger to troubled airlines, insists that Pan American World Airways, a new carrier with an old name, can compete as a...