SkyWest 2018 net profit down 35%; revenue up on fleet renewal

With the sale of its ExpressJet Airlines subsidiary and a continuing fleet upgrade, SkyWest is looking toward more focused operations in 2019. The sale of regional carrier ExpressJet to ManaAir, a new company with United Airlines as a minority stakeholder, was completed Jan. 22. That leaves SkyWest with its regional SkyWest Airlines subsidiary and its leasing business. “With the completion of the ExpressJet sell to ManaAir … we successfully mitigated a significant risk to our model. We believe our ability to focus on one operating entity in SkyWest Airlines will help us better achieve our objectives and deliver an exceptional product for our partners,” SkyWest president and CEO Chip Childs said. “There’s a lot of opportunity here with a single carrier ... it’s been well over a decade since SkyWest was on its own,” he said. “There’s no question that a significant portion of why we strategically made this decision was—no question—efficiency, [and] no doubt, increased focus.”<br/>