U.S. regional airline ExpressJet declared bankruptcy Tuesday, a day after ceasing operations out of its sole base at Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Operating as a United Express affiliate until United Airlines ended its code-share contract in 2020, ExpressJet in a statement on its website blamed market and economic conditions for its decision to go out of business.
After losing its United contract, ExpressJet ceased operating for more than a year, finally resurfacing last September under the moniker Aha and resuming operations as an ad hoc charter service then a scheduled ultra-low-cost airline to 11 destinations with three Embraer ERJ-145s and a spare.
The bankruptcy ends a storied history for ExpressJet, the precursor of which started operations in 1986 and began flying as Continental Express in 1987. Nine years later, Continental bought the regional carrier—then incorporated as ExpressJet—and operated it as a wholly owned subsidiary until 2002, when the Houston-based mainline spun it off.
Between 2002 and 2009 ExpressJet flew as an independent operation, flying a modest number of ERJ-145s for various mainline carriers, including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue, and Frontier Airlines. It enjoyed a revival of sorts in 2010, when United Airlines awarded it a multi-year fee-per-departure contract covering 22 of the Embraer jets.
After its purchase by SkyWest and subsequent merger into Atlantic Southeast Airlines in November 2010, ExpressJet enjoyed a decade of growth under various ownership structures and stood as the largest ERJ-145 operator in the world in 2020.
Later that same year, however, United ended its contract due to the effects of the Covid pandemic, leading to ExpressJet’s suspension of operation in September 2020. A year later, it resumed operations, first as an ad-hoc charter service and within about a month it established Aha as a scheduled ultra low-cost carrier.