Description:
SkyWest, Inc., headquartered in St. George, Utah, is the holding company for thirty-one-year-old SkyWest Airlines. SkyWest Airlines was founded in 1972 by Ralph Atkin to meet the needs of businessmen traveling between Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah. During the first year of operations, 256 passengers utilized the services of the fledgling airline.
In 1987 SkyWest Airlines signed a marketing agreement with Western Airlines to fly for them as Western Express out of their hub in Salt Lake City. Later that year, Delta Air Lines acquired Western. SkyWest then began a partnership with Delta as one of their Connection carriers and today, continues its affiliation with Delta at hubs in Salt Lake City and Dallas/Fort Worth with approximately 450 daily flights.
On October 1, 1997, SkyWest began its partnership with United Airlines. SkyWest is now the primary United Express carrier along the West Coast, providing more than 879 daily departures and serving United hubs at Los Angeles, Seattle/Tacoma, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago O'Hare, and Denver.
SkyWest added a third code-sharing partner on May 19, 2003, signing an agreement with Continental Airlines to operate flights as a Continental Connection out of their Houston hub. SkyWest previously has code-shared with Continental from 1995-1997 out of Los Angeles International Airport.
In total, SkyWest today provides approximately 1,400 daily flights system wide to 125 cities in 33 states and Canada. With a fleet of 73 Embraer-120 turboprops and 132 Canadair Regional Jets, SkyWest is the nation's largest independently owned regional airline and still growing.
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