RIP ExpressJet "Branded"

The airline woes continue. ExpressJet has decided to cease flying its independent operations as of September 2, according to a the Austin American-Statesman. On top of that, Delta announced last week that they are ending their contract with ExpressJet to operate as Delta Connection to various cities in the western U.S. So as of September 2, ExpressJet will only operate flights branded as Continental Express.

I have seen ExpressJet employees refer to the independent operations as "branded" to distinguish them from the Continental Express (and other) operations. A few years ago, ExpressJet decided to use some of their spare ERJs to serve point-to-point routes between mid-sized cities that did not directly compete with routes served by their Continental Express routes. A whole bunch of these flights were based out of places like Austin -- by the summer of 2007, ExpressJet served around a dozen cities non-stop from Austin. Unfortunately, this seems to be a business model that worked when oil was trading at around half of its current value, but not anymore.

I have heard it said that it actually costs the airlines less money to idle their ERJs on many routes than to actually fly them full of passengers. Fuel costs are insane these days.

Best of luck to the ExpressJet folks. I have a feeling that more than a few jobs are going to be lost as a result of this.