History
Continental Express/ExpressJet was at one time a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental Airlines, Inc. In this previous incarnation before its divestiture various air carriers operating as Continental Express flew turboprop aircraft such as the ATR 42, ATR 72, Beechcraft Model 99, Beechcraft 1900, Convair 580, de Havilland Canada Dash 7, Embraer EMB 110, Embraer EMB 120, Fairchild F-27, Fairchild Metroliner, Grumman Gulfstream I and NAMC YS-11. Continental Express/ExpressJet was formed through the merger of four separate commuter airlines that were wholly owned by Continental: Provincetown-Boston Airlines, of Hyannis, MA, Bar Harbor Airlines, of Bangor, ME, Britt Airways, of Terre Haute, IN, and Rocky Mountain Airways, of Denver, CO. As part of the consolidation of the four commuter operations, the PBA and Rocky Mountain operating certificates were retired. The Bar Harbor certificate went to Eastern Airlines for its Florida Eastern Express division. The combined company that became Continental Express/ExpressJet operated under the Britt Airways operating certificate until November 2011, at which time all ExpressJet operations became part of the Atlantic Southeast Airlines certificate. Continental Express also served Continental's Denver and Guam hubs until the early 1990s.
Continental Express was formed in 1986. Since the 1978 deregulation of the U.S. airline industry, U.S. carriers increasingly contracted flying to smaller destinations with small regional carriers; David Messing, a spokesperson with Continental Airlines Holdings in 1991, said that Continental Express was formed because, from a business standpoint, having one subsidiary airline for Continental was preferable to the previous scenario of numerous agreements with various smaller airlines.[1]
In the 1990s the airline was headquartered in the Gateway II office complex near the grounds of Houston Intercontinental Airport in Houston.[2][3][4]
On Thursday, September 4, 1997, Continental Express had its first regional jet flight. On Sunday September 7, 1997 Continental Express moved its operations at Bush Intercontinental Airport from Terminal C to Terminal B.[5]
In the past, Trans-Colorado Airlines of Denver, CO, Royale Airlines of Shreveport, LA, Air New Orleans of Birmingham, AL, Mid Pacific Airlines of Honolulu, HI, City Express of Toronto, Ontario, Colgan Airways of Manassas, VA, Southern Jersey Airways of Atlantic City New Jersey, and Gull Air of Hyannis, MA, have operated non-jet aircraft (primarily turboprops) using the Continental Express brand name. Emerald Air of Austin, TX and Royale Airlines also operated Douglas DC-9-10 jet service while Mid Pacific Air operated Fokker F28 jets and Presidential Airways of Herndon, VA flew British Aerospace BAe 146-200 jets on behalf of Continental.[6][7][8]
