60% is decent for the age of the service. Also consider ExpressJet is connecting small cities to small cities. That ultimately yields about 31 passengers per aircraft. Southwest in late '02 and mostly throughout '03 were reporting 55%-60% load factors.
ExpressJet's CEO was quoted saying...
"For our size aircraft, if we fill 35 seats (on a flight) then I’m taking a sack of money to the bank," Ream said. "But if we fill only 23 seats, then I’m taking an even bigger sack of money and turning it over to the people I owe for debt service."
ExpressJet's branded from what I've heard is a superior product to Southwest and other competitors.