In the wake of a first quarter that saw his airline’s operating margins cut by more than half from a year earlier, ExpressJet CEO Jim Ream didn’t see much point last month in revealing traffic figures for the company’s new branded operation. But in case anyone held out hope that things went better than expected, Ream didn’t just let the omission speak for itself. “The markets are thin,” he said. “That’s why there wasn’t service there to begin with, and certainly the loads and what we’ve seen so far reflect that fact.”
Expecting to introduce the last of the 24 new cities to the new “spider-web” network of 55 market pairs by June 12, ExpressJet hasn’t escaped the growing pains most expected would accompany a venture of such magnitude. Technical problems surrounding Express- Jet’s ticket distribution plan didn’t help matters, and neither has a sector-wide pilot attrition crisis that has forced Ream to consider carrying extra check airmen on the payroll.
