SkyWest Airlines Announces a New Code-Sharing Partnership with Continental Airlines
Monday May 19, 1:18 pm ET


ST. GEORGE, Utah, May 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SkyWest Airlines, a subsidiary of SkyWest, Inc. (Nasdaq: SKYW - News), announces that they have signed an agreement with Continental Airlines to supply the carrier with regional airline feed into their Houston hub. These communities will be announced by Continental at a later date.
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"Continental is a solid airline that is dedicated to weathering the challenges facing the aviation industry today," said SkyWest Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Ron Reber. "We have certainly strengthened SkyWest's stability with this new code-sharing agreement, and we look forward to a long and productive partnership with Continental."

SkyWest will fly under the Continental Connection banner, and their service will feature the Brasilia EMB-120 turbo-prop aircraft. The 30-passenger aircraft features single and paired seating for passenger comfort. With cruising speeds of more than 340 MPH, overhead storage compartments, and flight attendant service, the Brasilia ensures a fast, comfortable flight for its passengers.

Continental Airlines is the world's seventh-largest airline and has more than 2,000 daily departures serving 131 domestic and 93 international destinations.

SkyWest Airlines is the nation's largest independently operated regional carrier and carried 8.23 million passengers last year. SkyWest was recognized by the Department of Transportation as the number one on-time domestic airline for the month of February and March. They currently operate as Delta Connection and United Express carriers under a marketing agreement with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines respectively. SkyWest serves a total of 98 cities in 29 states and two Canadian provinces and has more than 1,000 daily departures.

This press release and information on SkyWest can be accessed at www.skywest.com .

SkyWest is a great airline. I'm glad to see Continental partner with them. Hopefully this will result in the resumption of service to cities like Waco (ACT), Tyler (TYR), San Angelo (SJT), etc.

For those who complain about ERJs, here's a chance to complain about something new: an EMB120!

The main complaint is not about the ERJs themselves, but ERJs being used on missions far lengthier than is appropriate and between large markets (such as CLE-ATL, CLE-DFW, IAH-PSP, etc.). ERJs are great for flights like CLE-MKE, IAH-LIT, EWR-ALB, etc.

The May 19 Aviation Week & Space Technology has quite a few RJ economic analaysis as well as a review & flight the of the emb170. I haven't read the review yet, but looked forward to FT complaining about the full load range of 2.1knm.

It occured to me that if it was lightly loaded, you could probably fly it SFO-EWR.

Also, see the grphs on pp. 52-53.

For <= 250 mi flights, I rather like the EMB-120.

And I definitely like Skywest, at least as far as their intra-California service as United Express goes.

And if the planes are configured the same, seats 9B and 9C are great!

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Today's Houston Chronicle reported that Killeen and Waco are the first two Continental Connection/SkyWest destinations from IAH. I believe this represents a downgrade in service to and from Killeen and a resumption of service to and from Waco.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...siness/1916725

Hopefully, the EMB-120's will mean that service will be resumed to Tyler and that service will not be discontinued in Victoria.

Skywest had applied for a subsidy from the federal government for service to VCT under EAS provisions. Mesa has also applied for the service, but they would fly from DFW with Beech 1900Ds. Either way, VCT won't lose service, but the only way it will continue as a CO codeshare will be with Skywest from IAH.

Having flown Skywest out of SLC a few times, I'm thrilled to see them here in Houston. I've always been impressed by their service.