Regional Career SkyWest Airlines will approach the “2019 level” of block-time flights this year, as the major US airlines will boost their feeder network.
Skywest expects to fly about 12% more block time than last year this year. “It mainly improves fleet availability and promotes strong ongoing demand for production,” Chip Executive Children said in its year-end revenue call.
Company executives say block times will skyrocket over the coming summers as they return to services of around 30 dual-class MHIRJ CRJ-Family aircraft and a massive fleet of 500 regional jets.
The largest US regional airline (Skywest, which contracts with all three major US network carriers and all Alaska Airlines) last year extended block time with similar numbers over 2023.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are all forecasting a return to full use of the regional fleet. This was slow to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic due to years of pilot shortage.
As a result, dozens of regional jets that have long been parked in the Arizona Desert have rejoined their fleet in recent months.
Skywest continues to convert Crj700 aircraft to smaller Crj550s. It has contracted to fly up to 50 regional jets on behalf of United, and SkyWest expects a full fleet to start operation by 2026.
Also expand the type elsewhere.
“We launched our first Delta CRJ550 last July, and we expect to move the 15 CRJ550 to the Delta Fleet by the end of this quarter,” says Wade Steel, Chief Commercial Officer.
“These New Delta and United CRJ550 contracts will reduce the number of unallocated dual-class CRJ700 and -900S to single digits in addition to the CRJ700 expansion with American,” he says. “We expect some of these aircraft to be assigned to one of our major partners soon.”
The company also shared plans to “monetize” CRJ200 assets. Skywest owns over 140 of its 50-seat regional jets.
“These aircraft have little book value, no related liabilities and have about 4 million cycles left to monetize,” Steel says.
The major US airlines appear to be far from the CRJ200. For example, the Americans recently announced that they would be granting a contract with Air Wisconsin, which currently operates around 60 CRJ200s, which expire at the beginning of April.
SkyWest is exploring a charter that uses the CRJ200 to fly under the SkyWest Charter Arm with a special pro-contract.
Skywest, the world's largest operator of Embraer Regional Jets, has won eight Embraer 175s this year, bringing the E175 fleet to 278.
Based in St. George, Utah, SkyWest made a profit of $323 million for the full year of 2024 compared to its $34 million profit the previous year.
