United Airlines is ending its contract with ExpressJet, the regional carrier which flies only for the carrier under the United Express brand.
United will now consolidate its Embraer ERJ-145 flying with its other affiliate CommutAir. Both regional carriers previously fed into United’s hubs.
“We have been communicating for several months that we expect to be a smaller airline in response to the unprecedented impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our business.
In February, we took our first step to simplify our partner landscape and consolidate our E145 flying. Today we are taking additional steps to further simplify our operation and right size our capacity for the future, ” United said in a statement announcing the move.
CommutAir will become the sole operator of United’s ERJ-145 operations and United said the changeover will take some months to compete.
The outlook for ExpressJet is poor given that United was its sole customer.