ExpressJet

ExpressJet flew as Continental Express from Houston, and went on flying for United after the 2010 merger. SkyWest bought it in November 2010 and combined it with Atlantic Southeast Airlines at the end of 2011. A joint venture involving United bought ExpressJet in 2019, United ended its contract, and it stopped flying for United in September 2020. It ceased all flying in August 2022.

A regional jet climbing away against a pale sky — Illustrative photo, not an aircraft of ExpressJet.

1.7 millionpassengers, 2020
53seats per flight on average
500 milesaverage trip per passenger
40.9seat-miles per gallon

How it changed

ExpressJet carried 1.7 million passengers in 2020. Its busiest year was 2013, at 33.3 million.

Its average flight had 40 seats in 2000 and 53 in 2020, a sign of larger aircraft replacing smaller ones. The average passenger flew 378 miles per segment in 2000 and 500 in 2020, and 62% of its seat-miles were filled in 2020.

ExpressJet passengers per year, 2000 to 2020.

Who it flew for

ExpressJet flew for more than one airline, and sometimes several at once. Our estimate of the split between them, which is based on the airports it serves, is too rough to publish for a regional like this. The summary at the top names its partners from public record.

Fuel

In 2020 ExpressJet burned 33 million gallons of jet fuel, which is 40.9 seat-miles per gallon and about 0.387 kg of CO2 per passenger-mile. Over 500 miles that's roughly 193 kg per passenger. Small regional aircraft burn more fuel per seat than the mainline jets, and a short hop spends a larger share of its fuel on take-off and climb, so these figures aren't graded against the airlines on the main list. Their flying and fuel are counted in the airlines whose names are on the tickets.

For some years ExpressJet didn't file usable fuel figures with BTS. In 6 of them we priced its own flight hours at the fuel burn per hour that other airlines reported for the same aircraft types that year; in 1 we used the median seat-miles per gallon of the regionals that did report. They're marked with an asterisk in the table below. See the methodology.

Year-by-year figures

Year	Passengers (millions)	Departures (thousands)	Seats per flight	Average trip (miles)	Load factor	Seat-miles (billions)	Seat-miles per gallon
2020	1.7	52	53.3	500	61.7%	1.36	40.9
2019	6.0	147	51.3	482	81.4%	3.58	38.5
2018	9.3	220	54.2	489	79.1%	5.74	33.6*
2017	15.5	362	55.6	490	78.3%	9.72	43.4*
2016	22.2	520	54.0	470	80.3%	13.01	38.1*
2015	26.1	610	53.5	487	80.7%	15.72	36.4*
2014	31.0	731	52.7	513	81.2%	19.60	41.3*
2013	33.3	808	52.3	507	79.7%	21.15	42.1*
2012	32.6	801	51.7	487	79.2%	20.03	42.5*
2011	16.9	440	50.0	548	77.9%	11.87	40.5
2010	16.3	421	50.0	571	79.3%	11.76	59.0
2009	13.3	356	50.0	597	77.4%	10.30	43.1
2008	15.5	426	48.8	612	76.1%	12.46	43.2
2007	17.5	491	48.4	582	74.2%	13.73	42.7
2006	18.2	492	48.6	567	78.0%	13.20	39.7
2005	16.1	450	48.5	556	74.7%	11.97	40.5
2004	13.7	405	48.4	540	71.3%	10.41	39.6
2003	11.4	354	48.1	504	68.5%	8.42	39.1
2002	9.3	315	47.1	427	63.5%	6.22	51.7
2001	8.4	316	43.1	406	62.3%	5.44	36.7
2000	7.8	316	40.1	378	62.3%	4.73	37.6

Regionals with shared partners

These profiles have a partner airline in common with ExpressJet in at least one data year. The partner split is estimated, and the airlines may have flown for the shared network at different times.

Nearby in fuel efficiency

Neighbours in the seat-miles per gallon table, using each airline's last data year. Fuel estimates are marked on the profiles, and these aren't same-year rankings.

PSA Airlines39.7 seat-miles per gallon, 2025 Freedom Airlines40.1 seat-miles per gallon, 2010 GoJet Airlines41.0 seat-miles per gallon, 2025 Endeavor Air41.0 seat-miles per gallon, 2025

Airline references

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), T-100 traffic and Schedule T-2 fuel filings; US EPA jet-fuel CO2 factor. Methods and allocation limits.

Back to all regional airlines or the fuel rankings.