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According to Wikipedia, United Continental Holdings is the parent of United Express: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Express

> "and result from union contracts that inhibit the legacies from profitably operating smaller (non-mainline) aircraft."

And it is these union contracts then that keep the US carriers from earning such low profits.

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United Express doesn't operate flights themselves. They own no aircraft and employ no flight crews. They contract out all operations to carriers like Republic.

United Express is nothing more than a brand serving as an umbrella for a group of subcontractors.

United seems to have some operational control since the CEO of United said that they would no longer be dragging people off of flights and in the media that passenger was listed as being on a "United Express" flight.

These subcontractors seems to run with lower operational expenses and yet use Americans as pilots following FAA guidelines. United could have a similar arrangement with lower operational costs for overseas flights.

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