Public | |
Traded as |
NASDAQ: SKYW S&P 600 Component |
Industry |
Air Transportation Aircraft Leasing |
Founded | September 8, 2005 |
Headquarters | St. George, Utah, USA |
Products | Airline Services |
Website | http://inc.skywest.com/ |
SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ: SKYW) is the holding company for two scheduled passenger airline operations, SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet, and an aircraft leasing company and is headquartered in St. George, Utah, USA.
Until 2005, SkyWest, Inc. was the holding company of SkyWest Airlines, its sole subsidiary at the time. This changed on August 15, 2005, when SkyWest, Inc. agreed to acquire Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) from Delta amidst Delta's bankruptcy proceedings for $425 million. The bankruptcy judge approved the all-cash transaction, which helped Delta improve its liquidity; the deal closed on September 8, 2005.
SkyWest Airlines and ASA have maintained separate hub feeder operations at their respective hubs. The FAA classifies SkyWest, Inc. as a major airline carrier with operating revenues of U$D 3.5 billion. On August 4, 2010, the parent company, SkyWest, Inc., announced that its subsidiary ASA would acquire ExpressJet Airlines, whose feeder network is built up in the East Coast, the South and Midwest The merger closed on November 12, 2010, and ASA and ExpressJet integrated their operations, and was granted a single operating certificate on December 31, 2011. The combined airline rebranded as ExpressJet.
On July 11, 2012, SkyWest, Inc. signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation to purchase 100 Mitsubishi Regional Jets with an option for up to 100 more. Deliveries are slated to begin in 2017. This order may be split between SkyWest, Inc's. two subsidiaries, SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet, and the airline is keeping the door open to leasing some aircraft to other carriers.
On May 21, 2013, SkyWest, Inc. came to an agreement with Embraer to purchase 100 E-175 Regional Jets, with an option for up to 100 more. Deliveries are slated to begin in April 2014. The first 40 aircraft will be flown by SkyWest, Inc.'s wholly owned subsidiary, SkyWest Airlines, under a 12-year capacity purchase agreement with United Airlines in a 76-seat, dual class configuration.