United Express is a flight connection service brand name for the spoke-hub of U.S. mainline carrier United Airlines, under which twelve individually owned regional airlines operate short and medium haul feeder flights. Mainline carriers often use regional airlines to operate services in order to increase frequency, serve routes that would not sustain larger aircraft, or for other competitive reasons. They primarily connect smaller cities with United's domestic hub airports and “focus cities,” although they offer some point-to-point service such as Sacramento to Eureka and intra-Florida flying between the Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale hubs.
On October 1, 2010, UAL Corporation and Continental Airlines merged to form United Continental Holdings, the holding company for the newly merged United Airlines. As Continental and United merged, Continental Connection and Continental Express has gradually adopted the United Express brand name, bringing the number of operators to twelve and the number of aircraft to over 550. The first aircraft painted into the new United Express livery was a Embraer ERJ-145 operated by ExpressJet.
As of November 30, 2011, after United had received its Single Operating Certificate following its merger with Continental Airlines, nearly 550 aircraft fly under the United Express brand.
On July 1, 2010, Pinnacle Airlines Corp. announced that Colgan Air would be merged into Mesaba Airlines. In September 2010, SkyWest, Inc., announced the merger of Atlantic Southeast Airlines and ExpressJet which will make ExpressJet the largest United Express carrier post merger.
Read more about United Express: History of United Express, Operators, Destinations
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