utahpilot
Seeing the light
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2001
- Posts
- 337
hmmm...
Source: Aviation Daily
SkyWest has no aircraft deliveries scheduled beyond June, but the carrier's CEO believes that later this year it will close some deals that make stunting of its growth "highly unlikely."
The airline is scheduled to take delivery of nine additional CRJ-700s by the end of June, producing about 30% growth if nothing happens beyond those deliveries, said CEO Jerry Atkin. However, he noted that the request for proposals (RFPs) that SkyWest has responded to and some of the unsolicited proposals the carrier has tried to win probably exceed the number of proposals it has bid on during its entire history.
Shopping Sprees
Atkin said SkyWest has responded to three RFPs that seem to be "real," compared with some during the past two to three months that "feel like shopping sprees just to see what the price is." The RFPs include a bid for 12 aircraft, a 25-plane bid and another for 20 planes.
Another change in the marketplace that Atkin highlighted during a presentation at the Goldman Sachs conference last week was that the number of available aircraft and attractive pricing reduce the pressure on major carriers to contract with their regional partners as far in advance as they've done in the past. "In spite of the cloudiness of the industry, the value of regional carriers seems to continue, but it's happening on a much shorter lead time," Atkin said.
Nice Overhead Bins
Although SkyWest flies 70-seat CRJ-700s, Atkin said the carrier has "looked at" the Embraer 170 and noted that the aircraft's cabin is a bit larger and has "nice" overhead bins. He explained that the costs of operating the -170 were somewhat higher since the aircraft weighs more and burns a little more fuel than the -700. SkyWest's CEO said there is competition between the two planes on cost- effectiveness and customer advantage. "When you put all that on the table," Atkin noted, "our major partners continue to buy as many -700s as -170s." SkyWest has no plans to buy new 50-seat jets, Atkin said. He thinks that there are more "sensible" ways to find jets of that size and that the availability of used planes is rising. SkyWest recently bought four CRJ-200s from Independence Air. He said two started flying in the United Express colors at the beginning of the year, and the remaining two are extras. Atkin said SkyWest is looking at a number of options for the extra planes. They could be used in SkyWest's partner carrier networks, or the airline might use them to experiment with origin-and-destination flying this summer.
I asked Jerry about the AirWis flying about 3 months ago, and he said he thought maybe United was just 'shopping it out to see what price they could get.'
Source: Aviation Daily
SkyWest has no aircraft deliveries scheduled beyond June, but the carrier's CEO believes that later this year it will close some deals that make stunting of its growth "highly unlikely."
The airline is scheduled to take delivery of nine additional CRJ-700s by the end of June, producing about 30% growth if nothing happens beyond those deliveries, said CEO Jerry Atkin. However, he noted that the request for proposals (RFPs) that SkyWest has responded to and some of the unsolicited proposals the carrier has tried to win probably exceed the number of proposals it has bid on during its entire history.
Shopping Sprees
Atkin said SkyWest has responded to three RFPs that seem to be "real," compared with some during the past two to three months that "feel like shopping sprees just to see what the price is." The RFPs include a bid for 12 aircraft, a 25-plane bid and another for 20 planes.
Another change in the marketplace that Atkin highlighted during a presentation at the Goldman Sachs conference last week was that the number of available aircraft and attractive pricing reduce the pressure on major carriers to contract with their regional partners as far in advance as they've done in the past. "In spite of the cloudiness of the industry, the value of regional carriers seems to continue, but it's happening on a much shorter lead time," Atkin said.
Nice Overhead Bins
Although SkyWest flies 70-seat CRJ-700s, Atkin said the carrier has "looked at" the Embraer 170 and noted that the aircraft's cabin is a bit larger and has "nice" overhead bins. He explained that the costs of operating the -170 were somewhat higher since the aircraft weighs more and burns a little more fuel than the -700. SkyWest's CEO said there is competition between the two planes on cost- effectiveness and customer advantage. "When you put all that on the table," Atkin noted, "our major partners continue to buy as many -700s as -170s." SkyWest has no plans to buy new 50-seat jets, Atkin said. He thinks that there are more "sensible" ways to find jets of that size and that the availability of used planes is rising. SkyWest recently bought four CRJ-200s from Independence Air. He said two started flying in the United Express colors at the beginning of the year, and the remaining two are extras. Atkin said SkyWest is looking at a number of options for the extra planes. They could be used in SkyWest's partner carrier networks, or the airline might use them to experiment with origin-and-destination flying this summer.
I asked Jerry about the AirWis flying about 3 months ago, and he said he thought maybe United was just 'shopping it out to see what price they could get.'
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