PE.com - Tourism Blog

The Price is Not Right for Oil, Says ExpressJet

An addendum to a brief I wrote for today's business section ...

Here's my brief:

ExpressJet Airlines said it will reduce the number of its daily departures across the country from 200 to 172 starting April 1 because of rising fuel prices and a slowing economy, according to a statement. The airline had already cut the number of its daily departures from 220 to 200 in the fourth quarter.

The Houston-based regional airline launched in April and added 15 destinations to LA/Ontario International Airport's schedule.

The airline's parent company, ExpressJet Holdings Inc., reported a net income loss of $31.7 million in the fourth quarter and total net income losses of $70.2 million for the year.

The airline had 392,694 passengers in 2007 out of the 7.2 million that used LA/Ontario International Airport.

Here's my addendum:

I spoke with ExpressJet's president and chief executive officer, Jim Ream, and the company's spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas who said that only a handful of flights out of Ontario will be affected. Whereas there are two daily flights between Ontario and Kansas City and Ontario and Omaha, there will only be one starting April 1.

Why less flights? Simple. Oil prices are too high, Ream said.