SkyWest Airlines (OO, Salt Lake City) has been awarded a two-year contract by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to provide essential air service (EAS) from Lewisburg Greenbrier Valley, Greenbrier County, West Virginia and Staunton, Virginia for nearly USD14 million in total.
SkyWest will commence 12x weekly flights from each of the communities to Washington Dulles and Chicago O'Hare on April 1, 2018. The airline will replace ViaAir (Orlando International), the current EAS contractor which provides 12x weekly connections from each of the communities to Charlotte International. ViaAir has notified the DOT on November 2, 2017, that it intends to terminate those EAS effective March 31, 2018.
SkyWest will receive an annual subsidy of USD3.99 million at Lewisburg and USD2.99 million at Staunton. The contract will run from April 1, 2018, through March 31, 2020. All flights will be served with 50-seat CRJ200s. SkyWest will provide operate these flights under the United Express banner using United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) flight numbers and also promised to spend USD20,000 per community on the marketing of the new service.
Other contestants for the EAS contract were SkyValue Airways (Pontiac Oakland County International), Boutique Air (4B, San Francisco), Ultimate Jetcharters (Akron Regional) and Southern Airways Express (9X, Memphis International).
SkyWest is a major regional airline in the United States. According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the airline operates 411 jets, including CRJ100s, CRJ200s, CRJ700s, CRJ900s and E175s. It currently does not fly as an independent operator but fully contracts its capacity as a regional feeder for Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines.
