SkyWest Airlines (OO, St. George Municipal) has announced its ExpressJet Airlines (Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) unit will be removing its CRJ200s from commercial service over the next year as it transitions to a dual-class aircraft fleet. The Atlanta-based production carrier currently operates fifty-five of the twinjets for and on behalf of Delta Air Lines and American Airlines.
SkyWest said in a statement that the removal of the CRJ-200 aircraft will reduce operating costs while streamlining its fleet efficiency.
Additionally, SkyWest and Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) have also entered into a termination agreement covering Bombardier’s residual value guarantee (RVG) agreements on seventy-six CRJ-200 aircraft owned by SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet. The Canadian manufacturer has agreed to pay SkyWest USD90 million by January 2017 along with certain other considerations in exchange for the release.
As such, with the withdrawal of the CRJ-200s, ExpressJet's fleet will consist of two CRJ700 Srs 701s, thirty-three CRJ700 Srs 701ERs, twenty-eight CRJ900ERs, five E135LRs, 103 E145LRs, and sixty-one ERJ-145XRs.
In tandem with this announcement, ExpressJet also confirmed that it ill operate twelve dual-class CRJ-700s for American Airlines on a multi-term contract.
"These CRJ-700s had been scheduled to be removed from service under a previously-disclosed early lease return arrangement," it said.
