Cliff-Hanger: People Express sells off Frontier

The suspense thriller known as The Perils of People Express took a sudden new turn last week -- but the denouement was not yet in sight. Almost three weeks after the revolutionary no-frills airline announced that it was looking to sell part or all of its operations to fend off bankruptcy, People found the buyer it needed. People's five-member board declared that United Airlines, the largest U.S. commercial carrier, would pay $146 million for Frontier Airlines, the Denver company that People picked up only last November. The same day, People's board rejected as "inadequate" an offer from Houston's Texas Air to...