New CRJ-700's for Skywest

[ptbodale]

The Globe and Mail newspaper is reporting that Skywest has ordered 30 CRJ-700's from Bombardier for $1.2 billion plus an option for 80 more. The CRJ's are rolling off the line in YUL.

[assghanistan]

Yeah, their stock went up about 4% yesterday, while everyone elses went down. Sound like a good deal for them.

[Jbrewster1012]

Does anybody know who they will be flying them for (Continental, Delta, or United?) or does Skywest not know yet.

[ptbodale]

Sorry I forgot to put that in, they are for United.

[Airnerd]

I think this is interesting and potentially signals a shift in the types of routes Skywest flies for UA. Today Skywest only flies 30-seat Brazilias and 50-seat CRJ200s, the -700s with 70 seats will allow UA to bring Skywest into larger markets than previously possible. I'd look for cities that currently have two or three RTs with UA B737s or A319s to shift to Skywest CRJ service exclusively. Routes like DEN-RNO and DEN-BOI come to mind...

[assghanistan]

I would imagine that Jackson Hole, Wyoming would be a likely spot, as well. Skywest is the dominant carrier there, and even has somewhat of a mini-hub there.

[JimmyK]

Hey,

This post kinda made me think. What are all the regionals going to do with all their RJ's when the industry picks up again? Now I may be wrong here but it's my understanding that the only reason the regionals such as SkyWest and Air Wisconsin are doing so well is because the majors are doing poorly. When a route starts doing poorly on the mainline instead of getting rid of the route all together they just switch it over to RJ service. DEN-TUS is one the comes to mind since I fly the route often. Before the economic downturn, 9/11 and the war in Iraq(now I may be wrong)the route was flown 5 times a day on a UA735 and now it's down to 3RJ's and 2 735's a day. So what do you think will happen to all the RJ's when the industry picks up agin and the majors will be able to fly those routes mainline again?

JimmyK

[JimmyK]

Dang it double posted.

[Noise]

Hey,

This post kinda made me think. What are all the regionals going to do with all their RJ's when the industry picks up again? Now I may be wrong here but it's my understanding that the only reason the regionals such as SkyWest and Air Wisconsin are doing so well is because the majors are doing poorly. When a route starts doing poorly on the mainline instead of getting rid of the route all together they just switch it over to RJ service. DEN-TUS is one the comes to mind since I fly the route often. Before the economic downturn, 9/11 and the war in Iraq(now I may be wrong)the route was flown 5 times a day on a UA735 and now it's down to 3RJ's and 2 735's a day. So what do you think will happen to all the RJ's when the industry picks up agin and the majors will be able to fly those routes mainline again?

JimmyK

Hmmm, that's a real thinker. You might have a point. Maybe they'll use them to places which are currently served by smaller aircrafts???

[assghanistan]

they'll do what they always do. shift the rj's around to different destinations. i remember back about 5 or 6 years ago, ELP was all expressjet out of IAH. then, about a year later, it went to all continental, and now they have a mixture of both rj's and 735's on it. that's the good thing about some of those mid-level cities is that you can pretty much shift the amount of regional and mainline aircraft back and forth to meet the proper demand, especially at different peak times of the day..... providing you don't convert one of your cities to all regional, though. you can convert it back to mainline, but it does cost a bit of money mainly for training and equipment (movement, purchases, training, etc.).

[FlyCharlestonSC]

I think that CHS would be a good fit for Skywest CR7's, if DL will be flying them. If not, I'd like to see some other DL (Comair, ASA) CR7's into CHS from DFW and CVG!