ExpressJet has announced that they will stop all branded operations effective September 2, 2008. This affects the flights that they operate – mostly on the West coast – under the ExpressJet name. I call it a pseuo-bankruptcy because it has the same effect as all the other bankruptcies – the operations will cease – but the airline itself will actually still be in business, operating as Continental Express. The Continental operations account for 5x the number of planes that were involved in the branded operations (and some Delta Express flights which are also being canceled) so that should keep ExpressJet in business a bit longer, but the overall effect is that another option is disappearing.
The 50 seat regional jets are not particularly fuel efficient nor comfortable to sit in for several hours (I hit my head if I stand up straight in the aisle!) so it is not all that surprising that folks aren’t keen on flying them too much. Plus, the routes that XJet was running (Jacksonville, FL to Kansas City, for example) don’t drum up images of high revenue business travel to me. Sure, they are convenient for folks in those cities (including a cousin of mine), but they just don’t make sense in the bigger picture.
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