SkyWest Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah. SkyWest operates and maintains aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed, and sold by four partner mainline airlines. The company is contracted by Alaska Airlines (as Alaska SkyWest), American Airlines (as American Eagle), Delta Air Lines (as Delta Connection), and United Airlines (as United Express). In all, it is the largest regional airline in North America when measured by fleet size, number of passengers carried, and number of destinations served — and one of the largest airlines worldwide in terms of fleet size.
SkyWest operates from 256 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico with an extensive network of routes largely set up to connect passengers between smaller airports and the large hubs of its partner airlines. In total, SkyWest carried 46 million passengers in 2025.
On an average day in 2025, the company operated 2,260 flights, of which 940 () were United Express flights, 680 () were Delta Connection flights, 420 () were American Eagle flights, and 210 () were Alaska Airlines flights.
History Frustrated by the limited extent of existing air service, Ralph Atkin, a St. George, Utah, lawyer, purchased Dixie Airlines on April 26, 1972, to shuttle businessmen to Salt Lake City. After early struggles, SkyWest began a steady expansion across the western U.S. It became the eleventh largest regional carrier in 1984 when it acquired Sun Aire Lines of Palm Springs, California, and had its initial public offering in 1986.
In early 1986, SkyWest began codesharing as Western Express, a feeder service for Western Airlines at its Salt Lake City hub and other mainline Western destinations utilizing Embraer EMB 120 and Fairchild Metroliner turboprop aircraft. Following the acquisition and merger of Western by Delta Air Lines in 1987, SkyWest then became a Delta Connection air carrier with codeshare service being flown on behalf of Delta to destinations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
From 1995 through 1997, SkyWest operated codeshare service for Continental Airlines as Continental Connection on flights out of Los Angeles that were also operated as Delta Connection.
In 1997, SkyWest began operating as United Express in addition to Delta Connection on flights out of United Airlines hubs at SFO, LAX and DEN. SkyWest became United's largest United Express operation by the late 1990s. Flights were initially operated with Embraer EMB 120s and Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets. CRJ700s were added in the early 2000s and the Embraer 175 were added in 2014.
A partnership with Continental was revived in 2003 as Continental Connection out of George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston but was discontinued in June 2005. This operation used Embraer EMB 120s.
On August 15, 2005, Delta sold Atlantic Southeast Airlines to the newly incorporated SkyWest, Inc., for $425 million in cash. The acquisition was completed on September 8, 2005.
In 2007, SkyWest began code sharing with Midwest Airlines at its hubs in Milwaukee and Kansas City using Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft. In 2010 the codeshare with Midwest had ended, and a new codeshare agreement began with AirTran Airways at Milwaukee. On September 6, 2011, AirTran Airways ended its codesharing and partnership with SkyWest. Shortly after, SkyWest began a codesharing agreement with US Airways to operate CRJ200 aircraft from US Airways' hub in Phoenix, Arizona.
On August 4, 2010, SkyWest, Inc., announced that it planned to acquire ExpressJet and merge it with SkyWest subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines in a deal reported to have a value of $133 million. The purchase aligned the largest commuter operations of United Airlines and Continental Airlines, who were in a merger process, and was approved on September 13, 2010, by the Federal Trade Commission.
In May 2011, SkyWest replaced Horizon Air on six routes on the West Coast being operated for Alaska Airlines. The flights were based out of Seattle and Portland and flew to several California cities, including Fresno, Burbank, Santa Barbara and Ontario. Horizon Air had been operating these routes with Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft; however Horizon retired this aircraft from its fleet. Alaska Airlines had a similar agreement with PenAir for Alaskan flights and Horizon Air for flights in the lower 48.
On November 15, 2012, SkyWest began a capacity purchase agreement with American Airlines for 12 Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft operating as American Eagle from American's hub in Los Angeles, California. This codeshare agreement with American was greatly expanded over the next several years to include destinations from American's hubs at Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Phoenix. Larger CRJ700/900 aircraft were introduced to the American Eagle system in 2016, and the smaller CRJ200s were discontinued in 2020. Embraer 175 aircraft joined the American Eagle system in late 2021.
On September 6, 2017, SkyWest Airlines reported that it has entered into aircraft purchase agreements and capacity purchase agreements to acquire and fly 15 new aircraft with Delta Air Lines and 10 new aircraft with Alaska Airlines. Of the 25 aircraft, 15 Embraer 175SC aircraft will fly under an agreement with Delta in a 70-seat configuration. The Embraer 175SC is built on the same airframe as other Embraer 175 aircraft and can be retrofitted to 76 seats in the future. The agreement with Alaska includes 10 Embraer 175 aircraft which will be configured with 76 seats, similar to aircraft SkyWest has previously placed into service with Alaska. Expected delivery dates of the 25 aircraft run from March 2018 through the end of 2018.
On December 18, 2018, SkyWest, Inc. announced that it would sell ExpressJet Airlines to another airline holding company with ties to United Airlines, ExpressJet's sole client. The $70 million sale closed on January 23, 2019.
In early 2024, regional carrier SkyWest Airlines purchased a 25% ownership stake of Contour Airlines to gain access to its infrastructure, personnel, and operational expertise as it launches its own Part 135 operation. SkyWest also plans to supply Contour with CRJ200 aircraft and partner with the airline to both recruit young pilots and provide opportunities to pilots who would otherwise need to retire due to age.
In March 2024, SkyWest Airlines signed a deal with United Airlines to operate an additional 20 Embraer 175 aircraft for United Express. Unlike other aircraft, these are financed by United Airlines, not SkyWest.
Corporate affairs
Business model Approximately 87% of SkyWest's flights operate under capacity purchase agreements. Under a capacity purchase agreement, the partner airline generally pays a fixed-fee for each departure, flight hour (measured from takeoff to landing, excluding taxi time) and block hour (measured from takeoff to landing, including taxi time) and an amount per aircraft in service each month with additional incentives based on completion of flights, on-time performance and other operating metrics. The remaining 13% of flights are operated under a pro-rate agreement, with SkyWest assuming all costs, setting fares, retaining all revenue from non-connecting passengers, and splitting the fares of connecting passengers on a pro-rated basis with the partner airline. SkyWest currently operates on a pro-rate agreement with United Airlines utilizing approximately 25 CRJ200 aircraft, and with Delta Air Lines utilizing 16 CRJ700/CRJ550 aircraft and 1 CRJ900 aircraft.
As of early 2021, SkyWest operates in 50 smaller cities that are subsidized under the federal government's Essential Air Service program. 36 are served under the United Express brand and 14 under the Delta Connection brand. The state of Wyoming subsidizes service to four other airports in Wyoming and operates under the United Express brand. Most subsidized routes are flown with Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets, while others are flown with the Bombardier CRJ550 (part of the Bombardier CRJ700 series).
Financials SkyWest is a subsidiary of SkyWest, Inc., an airline holding company that also provides contract ground handling services. SkyWest Airlines' performance figures are fully incorporated into the accounts of its parent company, SkyWest, Inc. SkyWest Airlines stand alone figures ('SkyWest Airlines segment' data in the Group accounts) are shown below:
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025Revenue (in millions of US$) 1,930 1,828 1,874 1,848 1,935 2,173 2,346 2,479 1,637 2,615 2,900 2,935 3,528 4,058Profit before tax (in millions of US$) 106 140 76 182 23 263 307 250 151 93 40 432 566Number of passengers (in millions) 40.3 43.7 21.3 36.6 40.1 38.6 42.3 46.0Number of aircraft 334 362 348 368 422 470 483 452 509 517 485 492 487Notes/sources
Network , SkyWest flies to 256 destinations throughout North America across 45 states and Washington D.C., 5 Canadian provinces and 12 Mexican cities.
Hubs Chicago–O'Hare (American, United) Denver (United) Detroit (Delta) Houston–Intercontinental (United) Los Angeles (Alaska, American, Delta, United) Minneapolis/St. Paul (Delta) Phoenix–Sky Harbor (American) Portland (OR) (Alaska) Salt Lake City (Delta) San Francisco (Alaska, United) Seattle/Tacoma (Alaska, Delta)
Crew bases Austin Atlanta Boise Chicago–O'Hare Colorado Springs Dallas/Fort Worth Denver Detroit Fresno Houston–Intercontinental Los Angeles Minneapolis/St. Paul Palm Springs Phoenix–Sky Harbor Portland (OR) Salt Lake City San Diego San Francisco Seattle/Tacoma Tucson
Maintenance bases Boise Chicago–O'Hare Colorado Springs Detroit Fresno Milwaukee Nashville Oklahoma City Palm Springs Shreveport Salt Lake City South Bend Tucson
Fleet Current fleet
SkyWest has the largest fleet of any regional airline in the United States. Since 2015, the airline has exclusively operated jet aircraft. Most SkyWest aircraft are painted in the livery of partner carriers, but SkyWest does have a small number of aircraft in its own livery that can be operated for any partner airline as needed.
SkyWest is a major operator of the Bombardier CRJ family of regional jets, was the launch customer for CRJ200, is the largest operator of the CRJ200 and took delivery of the last CRJ ever built, a CRJ900. The airline is also the largest operator of the Embraer 175.
Like most regional airlines in the United States, SkyWest is subject to scope clause requirements of its mainline carrier partners and their pilot unions; those requirements limit the size of the number aircraft flown by a regional airline of a particular seating capacity or max gross takeoff weight.
, SkyWest Airlines operates the following aircraft:
+ SkyWest Airlines fleet Aircraft In service Orders Passengers Operated for Notes F Y+ Y TotalBombardier CRJ20058——44650United Express11——30—30SkyWest CharterBombardier CRJ450—507161841United ExpressConverted CRJ200s entering service in Fall 2026 through 2028.Bombardier CRJ55014510202050Delta ConnectionAll are conversions of previous CRJ700 aircraft.262410202050United ExpressBombardier CRJ70068—9164065American EagleAll CRJ700 to be replaced by Embraer 175 in 2027.49124465Delta Connection9164469116164870United ExpressTo be replaced by Embraer 175 by 2026 and converted into CRJ550.Bombardier CRJ90028—12203870Delta Connection 11 aircraft to be replaced by Embraer 175 in 2027.44768—12244076American EagleTo be transferred from Mesa Airlines and Delta Connection.Embraer 17542112164876Alaska AirlinesDelivery scheduled for 2026.20—12204476American Eagle87—12203870Delta Connection164476Deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027. 121812322670United ExpressDeliveries scheduled through 2026.—164876—44Deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027. Options for additional 50.Fleet total498148