ExpressJet Airlines has been reincarnated as an airline - but the former regional carrier won't be flying in and out of Chattanooga or Atlanta.
College Park, Georgia-based ExpressJet announced plans to operate flights from Reno-Tahoe International Airport to eight cities in California, Washington and Oregon under a leisure brand called aha! - which it said stands for air-hotel-adventure.
ExpressJet, formerly known as Atlantic Southeast Airlines, or ASA, was a Delta Connection regional carrier for decades, and then was a United Express regional carrier before it shut down last year. As a Delta connection airline flying between Chattanooga's Lovell Field and Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, ASA was the biggest air carrier in Chattanooga more than a decade ago with up to nine daily flights to and from Atlanta.
The airline was established in 1986 and was purchased by the parent company of SkyWest Airlines in November 2010 and merged with Atlantic Southeast Airlines. The company had contracts to fly as American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express. The airline ultimately flew solely as United Express until it lost its contract on September 30, 2020 due to the drop in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April, ExpressJet filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation seeking to resume airline service.
ExpressJet CEO Subodh Karnik told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time that he aimed to serve cities that lost nonstop service over the years due to airline mergers and acquisitions and other factors. He also acknowledged that would likely mean flights between smaller cities, rather than hubs like Atlanta.
Karnik originally hoped to begin flying by June 2021. However, it wasn't until July 30 that the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an order declaring ExpressJet fit to resume flying as a certificated airline. Now, aha! plans to start flying Oct. 24.
Its first flights will be to Reno from Pasco/Tri-Cities, Washington; Medford, Redmond and Eugene, Oregon; and Bakersfield, Ontario, Arcata-Eureka and Fresno/Yosemite, California. The flights will be three times a week between the destinations with 50-seat Embraer ERJ145 regional jets. The company said it plans to grow to more than 20 cities in 2022.
Karnik is the majority investor in ManaAir LLC, which acquired ExpressJet from regional carrier SkyWest in 2019. The majority owner of ExpressJet is now Karnik's KAir Enterprises LLC, which has United Airlines as a minority owner.