Originally Posted by
weirdlyndon
So United is actually purchasing the planes and will then subcontract a UX carrier to operate. That's not normal procedure for Express aircraft, right? Usually the operating carrier purchases and assumes responsibility for the aircraft and United pays them to do the flying.
Originally Posted by
star_world
I believe CO did this in the past with some aircraft. Q400s maybe?
CO did this when they formed ExpressJet. In fact I think all the ExpressJet EMB-145s were owned by Continental and leased to ExpressJet for them to operate as Continental Express. This carried over to ExpressJet and United Express.
I'm not sure why this is a good arrangement but I'd guess that:
1. United can finance the purchase at better rates.
2. Since United has multiple United Express subsidiaries who may operate the ERJ-175, they can get better prices from Embraer due to bigger purchases.
3. Since United owns the aircraft, at certain contract points they can transfer them to other operating carriers as necessary. This gives them additional gross scheduling flexibility.
4. They probably avoid complications when the operating carriers have financial difficulties - they can just transfer the aircraft to another operating carrier.