ExpressJet caught in mereger fire..

[meritflyer]

LINK

Could be a very interesting year for ExpressJet pilots and employees.

EDIT: Yes, I know I misspelled merger.


edit......corrected link try this

[stuckingfk]

Invalid link.

[Doug Taylor]

Interesting redirects though!

[JEP]

link corrected above.
article:

Around the region

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle News Services
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ExpressJet urged to consider a merger

ExpressJet Holdings should "immediately abandon" flying routes under its own name, resume making contract flights for larger carriers and consider merging with another airline, its fifth-largest shareholder said.

Hayman Capital Master Fund, which owns 6.3 percent of Houston-based ExpressJet, disclosed the request in a U.S. regulatory filing Tuesday. J. Kyle Bass, managing member of Dallas-based Hayman Capital Partners, said the fund began buying ExpressJet shares in June.

The hedge fund's demand was triggered by ExpressJet's decision to start flying under its own brand in April, using 69 regional jets it operated for Houston-based Continental Airlines instead of returning them to Continental when their leases expired.

"The branded-flying strategy is, at least, partially responsible for the destruction of roughly $300 million in shareholder value over the past year," Bass said in a letter to ExpressJet Chief Executive Officer James Ream.

"We don't comment on individual dialogues with shareholders," ExpressJet spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas said in an interview. "Everyone is entitled to their opinion. We welcome the feedback from shareholders."

A Continental spokesman didn't immediately return a call for comment.

[Velocipede]

No kidding. You can't haul 6 passengers in and 4 passengers out of a city and expect to make money in a 50 seat RJ. FlyI proved the folly of that "thinking".

[jtrain609]

Well that's not exactly what's happening with branded.

Some routes ARE only hauling a handful of people every day, and those routes need to get pruned out. Some routes, on the other hand, have high load factors almost all the time and are carrying the rest of the route structure. Simply put, keep the routes that make money and kill the routes that are not so we can send the planes to Delta.

Delta has told us that they want every airframe we can give them, and they have followed through with taking every single airframe we've sent their way. We haven't been sending airframes to Delta because we have them tied up in branded, not because Delta doesn't want them.

[777forever]

Originally Posted by jtrain609

Well that's not exactly what's happening with branded.

Some routes ARE only hauling a handful of people every day, and those routes need to get pruned out. Some routes, on the other hand, have high load factors almost all the time and are carrying the rest of the route structure. Simply put, keep the routes that make money and kill the routes that are not so we can send the planes to Delta.

Delta has told us that they want every airframe we can give them, and they have followed through with taking every single airframe we've sent their way. We haven't been sending airframes to Delta because we have them tied up in branded, not because Delta doesn't want them.

Time for some of those branded planes to get a new paint job!

[kellwolf]

How many more can you guys move over to Delta without CAL sitting up and taking notice?

[Chris_Ford]

unlimited as long as it is at-risk flying.

[Velocipede]

Hey, train I'm just telling you what I observe in my local airport. On 3 of the 4 routes they serve here, your flights look like a ghost town. Those airplanes could and should be shifted to DAL flying so you guys aren't peeing money down the drain.

[MusketeerMan]

Train...just curious, how long is the contract with DAL?

[777forever]

Originally Posted by MusketeerMan

Train...just curious, how long is the contract with DAL?

2 years I believe

[jtrain609]

The CPA is 2 years for 10 airplanes, I have no idea how long the pro rate stuff is good for.

And Velo you're 100% correct, some routes are pissing away money and need to be dropped. But at the same time, you don't want to drop them too soon before the market really has a chance to develop. We've already dumped 6 aircraft worth of branded routes and sent them to Delta, and I heard we dropped another route the other day.

The guys upstairs have been doing a pretty good job of dropping routes if we think they're not working.

[BobDDuck]

Originally Posted by jtrain609

The guys upstairs have been doing a pretty good job of dropping routes if we think they're not working.

I'm just messing with ya.

When do you get your FEB schedule? I need to plan another ski jaunt.

[jtrain609]

That's a good question.

I've got it, but it's not finalized yet. I'm working 5 days at the end of this month, and 2 at the start of next month, which creates an obvious problem. I should have that fixed by in a few days and then I'll know what's going on.