SkyWest Airlines (OO, Salt Lake City) has given added details concerning its capacity purchase contracts with each of Delta Air Lines (operated as Delta Connection), American Airlines (operated as American Eagle), and United Airlines (operated as United Express).
Concerning Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson), SkyWest said it had reached a deal with the Atlanta-based carrier to operate its twenty recently ordered CRJ900s, due to deliver from late 2018 through 2020. The Bombardier Aerospace regional jets will replace twenty CRJ700s scheduled to be retired under SkyWest's existing flying contracts with Delta. SkyWest currently operates 190 aircraft for Delta including four CRJ100s, eighty-six -200s, twenty-nine -700s, thirty-six -900s, and thirty-five E175s.
Concerning American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth), SkyWest said it would place twenty used CRJ-700s into service for American Eagle on a four-year contract. The first of the fleet, the majority of which will be sourced from the aforementioned Delta switch, was placed into service in June 2018. All twenty jets are scheduled to be in service by early 2019. SkyWest operates fifty-six aircraft under the American Eagle banner namely twenty-seven CRJ-200s and twenty-nine -700s.
Concerning United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare), SkyWest said it had reached an agreement with the Illinois-based carrier extending their existing flying contract on nineteen CRJ-700s currently operated by SkyWest Airlines. These aircraft's contracts were previously slated to expire in mid-2019/2020 but have now been extended for three years. SkyWest operates 172 aircraft for United Express of which seventy-nine are CRJ-200s, twenty-eight are -700s, and sixty-five are E175s.
Separately, SkyWest's ExpressJet Airlines (Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) unit has reached an agreement to operate twenty used CRJ200s for United. The jets are expected to be sourced from within SkyWest's fleet through contract expirations via its other partners scheduled for the second half of 2018. They are expected to be placed into service with United from the latter part of 2018 through early 2019.
SkyWest Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Wade Steel said in a 2Q18 earnings call last week that as as part of the winding down of ExpressJet's dual-class Delta Connection flying contract, all Delta-owned aircraft - twenty-eight CRJ-900s and three -700s - have been returned to Delta. The removal of ExpressJet's remaining CRJ-700s from Delta service is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
"For the short-term, we expect to retain the majority of these aircraft under our various American [Eagle] flying agreements with some transition expense," he said. "However, since we own these aircraft with very little debt remaining, we are evaluating various options for these aircraft, including selling, leasing to third parties or utilizing or selling their parts."
Still on ExpressJet, Steel said that SkyWest does not expect American Airlines to extend flying contracts covering eighteen CRJ-700s beyond early 2019. The aircraft entail 12 from an original contract with American and six short-term aircraft that were transitioned to American Eagle from the Delta contract.
"We expect to return these aircraft to the lessors by early 2019," he added.
SkyWest also operates thirty-one EMB-175s for Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma International) under the Alaska SkyWest brand.
