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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 258 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 Airline hub of its partner airlines. In total, SkyWest carried 38.6 million passengers in 2023.
On an average day in 2024, the company operated 2,190 flights, of which 890 () were United Express flights, 700 () were Delta Connection flights, 380 () were American Eagle flights, and 220 () were Alaska Airlines flights.
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.
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. All subsidized routes are flown with Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets.
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 aircraft flown by a regional airline, measured in seat capacity.
, SkyWest Airlines operates the following aircraft:
| + SkyWest Airlines fleet | ||||||||
| Bombardier CRJ200 | 77 | — | — | 4 | 46 | 50 | United Express | |
| 18 | — | — | 30 | — | 30 | SkyWest Charter | ||
| Bombardier CRJ550 | 14 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 50 | Delta Connection | All are transfers of previous CRJ700 aircraft. |
| 20 | 30 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 50 | United Express | All are transfers of previous CRJ700 aircraft. | |
| Bombardier CRJ700 | 68 | — | 9 | 16 | 40 | 65 | American Eagle | |
| 5 | 9 | 12 | 44 | 65 | Delta Connection | |||
| 9 | 16 | 44 | 69 | All CRJ700 to be replaced by Embraer 175 in 2027. | ||||
| 15 | 6 | 16 | 48 | 70 | United Express | To be replaced by Embraer 175 by 2026 and converted into CRJ550. | ||
| Bombardier CRJ900 | 35 | — | 12 | 20 | 38 | 70 | Delta Connection | 11 aircraft to be replaced by Embraer 175 in 2027. |
| 44 | 76 | |||||||
| Embraer 175 | 42 | 1 | 12 | 16 | 48 | 76 | Alaska Airlines | Delivery scheduled for 2025. |
| 20 | — | 12 | 20 | 44 | 76 | American Eagle | ||
| 37 | — | 12 | 20 | 38 | 70 | Delta Connection | ||
| 49 | 16 | 44 | 76 | Deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027. | ||||
| 56 | 14 | 12 | 32 | 26 | 70 | United Express | Deliveries scheduled until 2026. | |
| 59 | — | 16 | 48 | 76 | ||||
| — | 44 | Deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027. Options for additional 50. | ||||||
Note: the above chart only shows aircraft in scheduled service. It does not include aircraft owned by SkyWest but that are: leased to other operators, removed from service, transitioning between agreements with partners, used as spares, parked, or in the process of being parted out.
According to the airline's website, at its inception SkyWest was operating all flights in the early 1970s with small propeller-driven, piston-engine aircraft, including:
In July 2024, the US Department of Labor also sued SkyWest, alleging that company financially supported and controlled the SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA) as a company union, and that the SIA under SkyWest's control failed to perform its duties as a representative agency and illegally barred two employees from running for leadership positions due to their support for an independent labor union.
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