SkyWest Airlines 2011 Annual Report Download - page 8

• weather conditions;
• government legislation and regulation;
• reduced utilization levels of our aircraft under our code-share agreements;
• 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
discussed. We assume no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement to reflect actual
results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting these statements other than as
required by applicable law.
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
General
Through SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet, we offer scheduled passenger service with approximately
4,000 daily departures to destinations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Substantially all of our flights are operated as Delta Connection, United Express, Continental Express,
US Airways Express or Alaska under code-share arrangements with Delta, United Air Lines, Inc.
(‘‘United’’), Continental Airlines, Inc. (‘‘Continental’’), US Airways Group, Inc. (‘‘US Airways’’) and
Alaska Airlines (‘‘Alaska’’), respectively, with significant presence in Delta’s, United’s and Continental’s
key domestic hubs and focus cities. SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet generally provide regional flying to
our partners under long-term, fixed-fee code-share agreements. Among other features of our fixed-fee
agreements, our partners generally reimburse us for specified direct operating expenses (including fuel
expense, which is passed through to our partners), and pay us a fee for operating the aircraft.
On December 31, 2011, Atlantic Southeast and ExpressJet Delaware completed the ExpressJet
Combination. Since November 17, 2011, the operations formerly conducted by Atlantic Southeast and
ExpressJet Delaware have been conducted under a single operating certificate issued by the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration (the ‘‘FAA’’). We currently anticipate that we will complete the full
integration of the operations of Atlantic Southeast and ExpressJet Delaware into ExpressJet during the
next few years.
SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet have developed industry-leading reputations for providing quality,
low-cost regional airline service during their long operating histories. SkyWest Airlines has been flying
since 1972 and ExpressJet (and its predecessors) since 1979. As of December 31, 2011, our
consolidated fleet consisted of a total of 732 aircraft, of which 443 were assigned to United and
Continental, 268 were assigned to Delta, eight were in preparation for new code-share assignments, five
were assigned to Alaska, four were subleased to affiliated entities, two were assigned to US Airways
and two were subleased to unaffiliated entities. We currently operate two types of regional jet aircraft:
the Bombardier Aerospace (‘‘Bombardier’’) regional jet, which comes in three different configurations
(the 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 Regional Jet (the ‘‘CRJ200’’), the 70-seat Bombardier CRJ700
Regional Jet (the ‘‘CRJ700’’) and the 70-90-seat Bombardier CRJ900 Regional Jet (the ‘‘CRJ900’’))
and the 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet (‘‘ERJ145’’). We also operate the 30-seat Embraer
Brasilia EMB-120 turboprop (the ‘‘Brasilia turboprop’’).
We were incorporated in Utah in 1972. Our principal executive offices are located at 444 South
River Road, St. George, Utah 84790, and our primary telephone number is [phone]. We
maintain an Internet web site at www.skywest.com. Our website provides a link to the web site of the
SEC, through which our annual, quarterly and current reports, as well as amendments to those reports,
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