US regional carrier ExpressJet Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will be liquidated in the coming weeks. The airline, which relaunched as leisure carrier Aha in October 2021 after losing its contract to operate flights on behalf of United Airlines the previous year, disclosed on 23 August that it had ceased all flight operations and filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware. "A combination of conditions led us to this decision," states ExpressJet chief executive Subodh Karnik. "Despite the valiant efforts of our employees to overcome challenges, and despite great support by our cities and airports – especially Reno-Tahoe and the community there – we arrived at a point where termination of operations was in the best interest of our stakeholders." The carrier links to the decision to a lack of available aircraft, lower revenues due to Covid-19 variants and an inability to implement hotel bundle offers, and high fuel prices. It says it expects to enter into an "orderly, court-supervised liquidation in the coming weeks". At its peak, ExpressJet operated more than 450 aircraft. Having previously operated as Delta Connection and United Express for several decades, it was relaunched as Aha in October with a plan to use Reno-Tahoe International airport as a base from which to deploy 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft on routes throughout the western USA.

Vietnam Airlines is seeking to dry-lease three Airbus A320neos. In a procurement update posted to its website, the Vietnamese flag carrier indicates a delivery schedule running from this year into 2023. Data shows the airline's fleet includes 20 A321neos. It does not, however, have any A320neos in service or storage, or on order.

Regional carrier Air Wisconsin Airlines has agreed a five-year capacity-purchase deal with American Airlines and will begin providing up to 60 CRJ200s to the US major once its existing capacity-purchase deal with United Airlines terminates.
Up to 40 CRJ200s regional aircraft will initially be covered by the agreement, with a certain number of aircraft becoming available to American each month commencing in March 2023 and continuing through October 2023, Air Wisconsin states in a 19 August Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The Air Wisconsin flights will be operated as part of the American Eagle regional network, and are set to be available for sale in the next few months. American's finance chief Derek Kerr told employees in a 22 August memo disclosed to Cirium that "Air Wisconsin’s fleet of up to 60 Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft will start to enter service no later than March 2023, with most of the flying focused on connecting customers to our Chicago O'Hare hub". Kerr adds: "You’ve likely seen headlines in recent months about a regional pilot shortage affecting the US airline industry... Today, we're excited to announce that we’re taking another important step to strengthen our network by welcoming Air Wisconsin Airlines to the American Eagle portfolio of regional airline partners… Our wholly owned and partner regional carriers strengthen our network by providing safe, reliable and convenient service from small- and medium-size communities to our hubs." American's capacity has been restricted by a shortage of pilots, particularly at its regional carriers. Its three wholly owned regional carriers – PSA Airlines, Piedmont Airlines and Envoy Air – in June successfully renegotiated contract terms with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), resulting in higher pilot wages. Air Wisconsin says that it "will continue to operate for United until we transition our fleet to American in 2023". United's agreement with Air Wisconsin runs through February 2023. Air Wisconsin currently operates 56 in-service 50-seat CRJ200s for United Express, and has eight in storage, Cirium fleets data shows. The 64 Air Wisconsin CRJ200s have an average age of 19.9 years and represent 10% of United Express's fleet of 633 aircraft. In June 2021, United ordered 200 narrowbodies from Boeing and 70 from Airbus as part of an overall fleet upgauge programme. At the time, United said that during the next few years it would be adding to its fleet a mix of previously ordered and just-ordered 500 narrowbodies. Some 300 of the 500 incoming narrowbodies will replace aircraft the carrier will soon retire. "One of our highest priorities with that new fleet is to retire 200-plus 50-seat, single-class regional jets in the coming year," United's chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella said on 28 June 2021. "We're still going to fly 50-seat jets to small communities throughout the country to make sure they're connected to our global hub network, but we're no longer going to use small jets to fly to large communities. We're now going to have large aircraft that can do that." United did not indicate in June 2021 which 200 of its 50-seat, single-class jets operated by United Express it was targeting for either retirement or for removal from its regional network. United has had the option of terminating its contracts with its United Express capacity providers for some of those 50-seaters or of letting the contracts expire as scheduled. Nocella reaffirmed during an earnings call on 21 July 2022 that "service to small communities will have less frequency, but bigger aircraft". "We look at the profitability by aircraft type and what we need to do to hit our financial targets. We will simply have a different-shaped network in 2026 than we did in 2018 or 2019." Framing the termination of its capacity-purchase deal with Air Wisconsin as a "decision", United tells Cirium that the move "is consistent with our previously announced United Next growth strategy, where we plan to fly more, larger narrowbody aircraft within our domestic network", and that it expects Air Wisconsin "will continue to fly as a United Express carrier into 2023".