SkyWest and ASA

In a prior post I had mentioned that with the purchase of ASA by SkyWest, that maybe we should contact SkyWest since ASA had good loads out of ORH to Chicago. Both Tim DeSantis and Alec corrected me that ASA had flown from ORH to Atlanta. My mistake.

Chicago is in fact the hub for SkyWest but they will continue to use Atlanta as their ASA hub. Maybe we should then contact SkyWest about ASA from ORH to Atlanta based on the past passenger loads?

SkyWest posted an $82 million profit last year, up 21.7 percent on revenues of $1.6 billion. Revenues have more than tripled since 2000. SkyWest has always been a non-union company. ASA pilots and flight attendants are union members.

Michael J. Boyd, a Colorado aviation consultant, said ASA has consistently been among the worst airlines at Hartsfield-Jackson in terms of on-time performance and baggage handling, and Boyd said that will change. "SkyWest will clean up the mess on the C Concourse," he said. "They've shown they can run hub operations smoothly – and I think they'll do in Atlanta what they've done everywhere else they fly."

SkyWest also inherits a long-simmering contract dispute among ASA pilots. The current contract became amendable three years ago, but negotiations have produced little progress since then. "SkyWest knows how to make money and they know how to run an airline," said Rick Bernskoetter, an ASA captain and union leader. "

In addition to legacy carriers, SkyWest has sought alliances with low-cost carriers such as AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest, which have been profitable and expanding throughout the airline industry's post-9/11 hardships. So far, there have been no takers.

Atkin, CEO of SkyWest, says the cost structure of carriers like United and Delta will closely resemble their low-cost competitors whether the cuts come in Chapter 11 or elsewhere.
"What used to be a huge cost difference between the network carriers and the low-cost carriers is narrowing," he said.