About Me
SkyWest Airlines, headquartered in St. George, Utah 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 1985 SkyWest Airlines signed a marketing agreement with Western Airlines to fly for them as Western Express out of their hub in Salt Lake City. In 1987, Delta Air Lines acquired Western. SkyWest then began a partnership with Delta as one of their Connection carriers and today continues that partnership with more than 500 daily flights, operating primarily out of Delta’s hub in Salt Lake City.
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 1,200 daily departures and serving United hubs at Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago O'Hare and Denver.
SkyWest began a partnership with Midwest Airlines on April 1, 2007. SkyWest flies as Midwest Connect to a variety of cities from hubs in Milwaukee and Kansas City using 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet 200 aircraft.
In addition to its current partners, SkyWest previously had code-share agreements with Continental Airlines from 1995 to 1997 out of Los Angeles International Airport and from 2003 to 2005 out of Houston Intercontinental Airport.
SkyWest Airlines currently employs more than 11,000 employees across 158 cities in 42 states, 5 Canadian Provinces and Mexico. Operating more than 1,600 flights per day for United Express, Delta Connection and Midwest Connect, SkyWest proudly flies the EMB 120, the Bombardier CRJ200, CRJ700, and the CRJ900. SkyWest Airlines was named the number one on-time mainland airline by the Department of Transportation 2005, 2004 and 2003, years in which they carried more than 40 million passengers combined.
