ManaAir has announced that it completed the acquisition of ExpressJet Airlines (Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) from SkyWest Airlines (OO, Salt Lake City) and will now proceed with its plan to add twenty-five dual-class E175s to the carrier's fleet.
The delivery of the first Embraer regional jet for ExpressJet is planned for April 2019.
ExpressJet will continue to operate primarily for United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) under the United Express regional brand. ManaAir itself is a United joint-venture in which the carrier holds a minority stake. The airline ended operations on behalf of American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) earlier in 2019 and on behalf of Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) in November 2018.
According to SkyWest's announcement from December 2019, the transaction includes approximately USD70 million in cash for the majority of ExpressJet's assets as well as the assumption of its liabilities, subject to a working capital adjustment.
Subodh Karnik will serve as the new President and CEO of ExpressJet.
As part of the transaction, SkyWest has also agreed to lease twenty CRJ200s to ExpressJet for up to five years. The deal also includes certain protections around existing SkyWest Airlines flying.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, ExpressJet currently operates two CRJ100ER, sixteen CRJ-200ERs, twenty-four CRJ700s (out of service following the end of service for American and Delta), and 109 E145s. It also dry-leases a further nineteen CRJ-700s to SkyWest, while, in turn, all fourteen CRJ-100/200s operated by ExpressJet are owned by SkyWest. All but one of its E145s are owned by United.
