SkyWest Airlines is a specialized regional carrier that is headquartered in St. George, UT. According to most FAA sources, SkyWest Airlines is a major airline. However, they operate on a regional airline and belong to the RAA (Regional Airline Association). SkyWest operates to 180 cities in various states and provinces, as well as five cities in Mexico and the Bahamas. SkyWest Airlines has partnerships with the following commercial carriers: Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways Express, Delta, and American Airlines. In 2013, SkyWest carried nearly 30 million passengers.

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The Good

Partners
Boarding
Flight statistics
Time in business

SkyWest is a regional airline that operates flights on behalf of the major airlines they partner with. Because of this, they do not perform any reservation or ticketing functions. Instead the major airlines they partner with sells the tickets and the connecting flights may be a SkyWest plane. Their partnering airlines selling the tickets are: • United Airlines (as United Express) • Delta Air Lines (as Delta Connection) • American Airlines (as American Eagle) • Alaska Airlines (as Alaska Airlines operated by SkyWest Airlines) This means that all ticket prices will be what those airlines generally charge. SkyWest does not compete with the other airline prices and instead allows them to set the price and is not involved in the ticketing process. Similarly to the ticket prices, SkyWest does not have their own baggage policy but follows the baggage requirements of their partnering airlines. For flights with Delta that use SkyWest to connect, they follow Delta baggage prices. This is true for all of their partnering airlines. In addition to the restrictions of these airlines, SkyWest has their own restrictions in baggage. They do not accept: • Kayaks • Windsurf equipment • Hang gliders • Extra-large or giant pet kennels These items are prohibited on SkyWest flights due to equipment size or other operational constraints. They also do not allow any items classified as a pressurized gas/liquid, oil-based paints, explosives, poisons, magnetic materials, flammable items, or corrosive, etc. The boarding process on SkyWest Airlines is the boarding process of whichever partnering airline the flight is connecting with. Seats are assigned, and the check-in and boarding process depends on the major airline of the flight. If the tickets are purchased through American Airlines, then it is the check-in and boarding process of American Airlines that will take place on that SkyWest flight. SkyWest flies 1,700 daily flights to hundreds of locations each day. They have great on-time performance when compared to the top airlines. Their on-time percentage for their daily flights is 85% on time, late is 6%, very late is 2%, and excessively late is 5%. This is a similar performance to many of the top airlines that SkyWest partners with. This shows that when taking a connecting flight of SkyWest while on a major airline flight, the on-time performance will be consistent with that that is expected of that major airline. When looking at the most active routes of SkyWest, they did not receive as high of ratings as some of the top airlines. They had many flights with scores of 2-3 stars instead of the 4-5 stars seen by some airlines. Their top flights include: • Yuma to Phoenix (4.1 stars, 90% on time) • Los Angeles to San Diego (3.1 stars, 84% on time) • Milwaukee to Chicago (2.9 stars, 84% on time) Their active routes are short connecting flights, which is mainly what SkyWest flies. Passengers want these short flights to not arrive late for their next flight. Based on these numbers it seems that SkyWest does fairly well at keeping their passengers on time. The first flight of SkyWest took place in 1972. For the past 43 years they have been a regional airline partnering with major airlines in their connecting flights. Compared to those larger airline partners, SkyWest is a newer company. Many of the larger airlines have been around for over 80 years, almost double SkyWest. They have 347 aircrafts in operation and in 2014 carried 27.9 million passengers. SkyWest has a Safety First motto and state that they have some of the most thoroughly trained and experience pilots in the industry. They are known for their "industry-leading workforce, exceptional leadership team, and continued solid operational and economic performance". SkyWest is headquartered in St. George, Utah and flies to many destinations across the United States. Their mission is to be the airline of choice, the employer of choice, and the investment of choice. They do this by partnering with some of the top airlines available such as United, Delta, and American Airlines.

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The Bad

Destinations
Lack of information

SkyWest partners with a number of different airlines to serve as their connecting flights. Through these airlines, SkyWest flies to 205 cities. This includes 44 states, Washington D.C., 6 Canadian Provinces, and 11 Mexican cities and the Bahamas. The number of destinations for each airline that SkyWest partners with are as follows: • United: 163 • Delta: 128 • American: 25 • Alaska: 19 • Shared: 102 Because SkyWest partners with these larger airlines, they are able to reach a large number of destinations domestically. They don't have hardly any international flights however which makes them a small airline compared to other top airline and their destinations. While their partnered airlines travel across the world, SkyWest only assists with connecting flights domestically. They are large for how many cities they fly to in the United States, but small when compared with international destinations. SkyWest had very little information about their in-flight services available on their website. They do have the standard complimentary snacks and beverages as well as available beverages that are not complimentary. Beyond this, not much is known about the in-flight services. However, because they specialize in short connecting flights, not much entertainment or food will most likely be offered by the airline, or needed by the passenger.

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The Bottom Line

Overall, we do not recommend SkyWest. Their lack of transparency was the biggest red flag. We also found many poor customer reviews during our research. We suggest shopping around when you purchase your ticket, as you might get stuck on a CRJ 200 flight, which are not always the best for comfort.

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User Reviews

Star Rating

4.3

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