The parent of ExpressJet Airlines, which operates regional flights as Continental Express, said Friday that traffic rose 13 percent in November from a year earlier.
The company said paying passengers on ExpressJet flew 638 million miles last month, up from 565 million miles in November 2008.
The airline raised its capacity 10 percent to 833 million available seat miles. Its planes averaged 76.5 percent full, up from 74.4 percent full a year earlier.
ExpressJet, based in Houston, had 214 planes flying for Continental Express and 30 in corporate aviation.
ExpressJet also announced that it will operate 22 ERJ-145 aircraft under the United Express brand beginning in May 2010. Prior to May 1, 2010, ExpressJet will operate up to 22 aircraft under a short-term arrangement for United to assist with the transition of flying from their previous partner. The arrangement began with three aircraft on December 1, and is scheduled to increase to 22 aircraft by March 2010. These aircraft will be sourced from ExpressJet's corporate aviation division and related traffic results will be included in the next monthly traffic release.
ExpressJet flew 1,069 block hours during the month in its Corporate Aviation (charter) division. ExpressJet's fleet within the Corporate Aviation division consisted of eight 41-seat aircraft and 22 50-seat aircraft.
ExpressJet had a total of 244 planes in its fleet during November - 214 allocated to flying as Continental Express and 30 operating in its Corporate Aviation division.
