Ed Beauvais

Edward Raymond Beauvais (November 13, 1936 – September 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, which later merged with American Airlines.

Early life Beauvais was born Edward Raymond Beauvais on November 13, 1936, in Pueblo, 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 steel mill. He went to Saint Joseph's College, Indiana, on a sports scholarship and later moved over to Regis University in Denver. 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 as he came out of high school. However, he went on to pick up football and became an offensive lineman. Beauvais started his career working in the accounts department at Colorado Fuel and Iron before joining Frontier Airlines working in their finance department. He later moved on to Bonanza Air Lines and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1966.

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 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.

Stepping down from America West in 1992, Beauvais started Western Pacific Airlines, 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 into 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.