Plus Branded wasn't the total disaster many people made it out to be. Fuel costs killed it plus the fact that there was probably pressure from Continental (we were using their airplanes, after all). The last month of flying was also the most popular with something like +80% load factors. Ticket prices were steadily climbing too.

Being from California I got to hear a lot about what people thought about ExpressJet and it was nothing but positives. Word of mouth was just beginning to get serious momentum about the same time they were forced to shut it down. Would it have really had a chance if fuel stayed low? Hard to say, but just saying the product bombed is not really telling the whole story.

 

I'll second that

 

Branded would have been profitable in 2008 if fuel had stayed at or under $100, that is what I was told in recurrent from a VP. They planned to lose money on it for 2-3 years, they just could not keep it going with oil at $140. It exceeded everyone's expectations.

 

I don't think it can really be said what would or would not have happened.

An alternate scenario would have been this;

69 airplanes given up, THEN when the time came to reduce again per the prior CPA, XJT gets forced into signing the same (or similar) type CPA they got forced into last year, with the language of 205 aircraft, with the option to take them down to 190 per the written timeline.

 

I owe the fact that i have a job to the man. The music stopped and i am stuck at a decent regional vs being unemployed or at a crappy regional. In my indoc he came in and everyone asked "what will you do if we lose the 69 airplanes? will we park those airplanes?" and his response was "we dont park **** around here."

He started as a mechanic and from his business decisions he is no wimp. You can knock him all you want for what happened to XJT but i think a lot of it was inevitable. He could have sat behind his desk and walked away from a bankrupt company with his bonus. he took a lot of flak from inside and outside his company all while retaining the respect of his employees.

 

x2......... (except that I'm furloughed, but I still agree)

 

I was one of the unfortunate furloughees and I can say I have no regrets over coming to XJT. It's a class act and Ream impressed me from day one with how he ran the show. Considering that the deck was stacked against the company from the get-go it was the boldness of the company that kept it from just getting pushed under the rug by Continental. Through risky maneuvers like keeping the 69 planes and doing branded and short term contracts they got the United flying. Instead of the newest and most capable XRs and LR2s all Continental got back was the creaky old E-135s that we didn't want anyway (and Republic can enjoy losing money with them on Midwest now).

Anyway I've worked at a lot of places and I haven't respected any company as much as XJT. I'd love to come back some day.

 

unfortunately i dont know if it will be the same company with different management. If you compare how we are treated vs how other regionals are being treated... it is amazing to think they are in the same category of companies.

I did dis-like the fact that Ream openly took jabs at Kellner. I think kellner is about as useful as tits on a bull but for Ream to say "well i havent called him an ... to his face yet" is a bit on the dumb side. We would have been man handled by CAL probably the same way but still it left a lingering question behind that i cant answer.

 

LOL Now that's funny right thar I don't care who you are!! Hey if you look at the size of Kellners' head, it does lok like a huge a.. that's balding.

 

Guys. I wasn't knocking the branded flying as a product. I heard good things about it too from those that flew on it, and I wish I could have tried it out.

What I was trying to say is that, early on during the IPO, I never believed in his grand plans going forward regarding such things as branded flying that he mentioned even then. The economics of the 50 seat jets just don't allow it, as a stand alone product. I think they had a niche product, much like Allegiant has a niche product. Would branded have made it through the recession if it survived the fuel spike, who knows.

To me that, whole IPO thing was odd. Obviously a business deal and that is that. Ream is obviously a good ops guy. AA thinks so, and so did CAL as he ran Micronesia and Express well. To me though, while I liked him as an ops guy, I just could never rally behind the guy. I left though about a year before CAL pulled the airplanes, so I was more in the transition, and thats maybe why.

ExpressJet had a great attempt at branded, and I think it is something that the employees should be very proud of. It is a great place to work, and I enjoyed my entire time there, and I hope for all of you, that it continues. Take pride that it is such a good place.