Express Jets, the worlds largest regional airlines.

They were established in 1987 and

since then they have prided themselves on becoming the worlds first super regional carrier.
Their vision is to connect more people more places more often, to the places they love. Main
headquarters are based in Atlanta Georgia and employee more than 9000 aviation professionals,
and fly into 190 different airports. I will be evaluating Express Jets five criteria platforms that I
want in an airline when I go to work for one. These are; pay and benefits, ease of transition,
location, fleet, character of company.
Pay and Benefits:
Starting off as a new pilot in the industry it is important to look at the way the company
operates and what they pay. Some pilots dont care what they get paid they just want a job.
However we choose pay and benefits as the number 1 thing to look for in a company when you
get hired. Express Jets starting pay for a first officer is 23 dollars an hour the first year then it
goes up every year but tops out at 44 dollars an hour. Then for captains it starts at 62 an hour and
every year goes up and after being a captain for 18 years it tops out at 97 dollars an hour. This is
a dilemma for this airline because you start off with a pretty low pay and it takes a long time to
work up to a position where you are making a pretty good living and still after being a captain
for 18 years you arent making in the six digits. Express Jets benefits are good though with a
monthly guarantee of 75 hours. As for vacation time that depends on seniority as well. Your first
year you get 7 days of vacation time and then from there it goes up. After you work there for 11
year it tops out at 28 vacation days a year. With a retirement plan and a full 401k and matching
401k 4-6%. Pay and benefits is a major part in choosing what airline to work for but most
regional airlines all have about the same pay scale until you go to the majors where the big bucks
are. So the next most important thing to consider is ease of transitioning from Express Jets to the
majors.
Ease of Transition:
Ease of transition is a huge factor on picking what airline to work for. Regional airlines
are where pilots go to start off their careers and gain experience and build up hours to be able to
move into the majors. However some pilots choose to stay at the regionals and never go to the
majors. Express Jets is mainline partners with American Airlines and together they fly American
Eagle, partners with Delta and together fly Delta Connected, and partnered with united and fly
United Express. Even with all of these partners with the majors there is nowhere it is says that
they have a way of hiring pilots from Express Jets into these major airlines. Airlines usually
wont create a transitioning plan like this, where pilots go from a regional to a major because the
majors want to be able to hire the pilots they want. However though according to Express Jets
pilot reviews this is a good airline to work for due to its constant learning environment and
always learning something new. This will help you get into a major airline by gaining
experience.
Location:
When deciding on what airline would be a better fit for our group location was our third most
important criteria. Looking at having hubs in mid-size towns in the western half of the US.

Express Jets has quite a few different hubs located throughout the United States they are located
in; Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Dulles VA, Huston, Kansas City, and
Newark. There are only a few major hubs that meet our requirements here. Dallas, Denver and
Huston are all in the western half of the US but keep in mind that these are only three locations
that Express Jets has that meet our requirements. So this might cause a problem as to where a
new pilot would get based out of and what his likely hood is pretty low of being placed at the one
he wants.
Fleet:
Express Jets has a pretty good size fleet when it comes to regional airlines. They have
411 aircraft and the average age of the fleet is 11.5 years old. It is important to look at the type of
airplane that an airline has because typically the larger of plane you fly the more money you
make.
Express Jets flys 5 different types of planes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

CRJ 200 a 50 passenger plane and they own 91

CRJ 700 a 65 passenger plane and they own 41
CRJ 900 a 76 passenger plane and they own 28
ERJ 135 a 37 passenger plane and they own 9
ERJ 145 a 50 passenger plane and they own 242

This is the fleet of planes they fly as you can see they have a few different types of planes you
can fly but none of them are very large and are all pretty similar. However they dont need to be
large planes because regional airlines connect smaller flights to the majors so there isnt a need
for larger planes for the routes they fly. I know these planes arent the 150 passenger planes that
the majors fly but for a regional airline this is a really good fleet of planes and it offers a good
variety of aircraft for pilots to fly.
Character:
Each airline has its own way of operating and its own company guide lines for the way
they treat their customers and employees. With this a company character is built and when you
are a new pilot looking for an airline to work for the character of the company is important to
consider. Do you want to work at a place where there are strict guide lines and its a military
structure or work in a friendly more family oriented structure? This is something important to
consider in an airline even though we put it as the last thing on our list it is still important.
Express Jets core values are; Safety first, treat people with dignity and respect, honesty and
integrity, work smart with commitment to self-improvement, and take pride in making sure the
job is done right. These values show that the character of the company is reliable and
hardworking with a family friendly feel. Its not just laid back do whatever you want but at the
same time its not a military structure. This is a perfect in-between structure that we are looking
for in an airline.
In conclusion Express Jets meets some of the requirements that we are looking for but in some of
the categories it falls short and another airline might be better. Overall though it is a good airline

and meets most of the criteria we had listed. For me though I feel like this could be an airline that
would fit me and my personalities and could be a possible contender to start my career off with.

Works Cited:
ExpressJet Live Connected." ExpressJet Airlines Home Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb.
2014.
"AIRLINE PILOT CENTRAL." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.
"ExpressJet Pilot Pay." ExpressJet Pilot Pay. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2014