SkyWest Airlines 2008 Annual Report Download - page 7

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PART I
Unless otherwise indicated, ‘‘SkyWest,’’ ‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us,’’ ‘‘our’’ and similar terms refer to SkyWest, Inc.;
‘‘SkyWest Airlines’’ refers to our wholly-owned subsidiary, SkyWest Airlines, Inc.; and ‘‘ASA’’ refers to our
wholly-owned subsidiary, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Inc.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Certain of the statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K should be considered
‘‘forward-looking statements’’ within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. These forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as ‘‘may,’’ ‘‘will,’’ ‘‘expect,’’
‘‘intend,’’ ‘‘anticipate,’’ ‘‘believe,’’ ‘‘estimate,’’ ‘‘plan,’’ ‘‘project,’’ ‘‘could,’’ ‘‘should,’’ ‘‘hope,’’ ‘‘likely,’’
and ‘‘continue’’ and similar terms used in connection with statements regarding our outlook, the
revenue environment, our contractual relationships, and our anticipated financial performance. These
statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our future growth and development plans,
including our future financial and operating results, our plans for SkyWest Airlines and ASA, our
objectives, expectations and intentions and other statements that are not historical facts. Readers
should keep in mind that all forward-looking statements are based on our existing beliefs about present
and future events outside of our control and on assumptions that may prove to be incorrect. If one or
more risks identified in this Report materializes, or any other underlying assumption proves incorrect,
our actual results will vary, and may vary materially from those anticipated, estimated, projected, or
intended. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described below in
Item 1A., Risk Factors, and the following:
• global and national economic conditions;
• the impact of high fuel prices on the airline industry;
• our ability to attract and retain code-share partners;
• changes in our code-share relationships;
• the cyclical nature of the airline industry;
• reduced utilization levels of our aircraft under our code-share agreements
• competitive practices in the airline industry, including significant fare-restructuring activities,
consolidation of major carriers, leaving fewer potential code-share partners, capacity reductions
and bankruptcy filings and other restructurings by major and regional carriers, including Delta
Air Lines (‘‘Delta’’), United Air Lines (‘‘United’’) and Midwest Airlines, Inc. (‘‘Midwest’’);
• labor costs;
• security-related and insurance costs;
• weather conditions;
• government legislation and regulation;
• relations with our employees, including the impact of labor negotiations and agreements with
our unionized and non-unionized employees;
• litigation with Delta;
• unionization efforts among SkyWest Airlines’ employees; and
• other risks and uncertainties listed from time to time in our reports filed with the SEC.
There may be other factors that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements set
forth in this Report, which factors may also cause actual results to differ materially from those
3