SkyWest Inc, which owns Skywest Airlines and Skywest Leasing, turned an $88 million net profit during the second quarter ending 30 June as the company prepares for its next moves after selling ExpressJet in January.
Net profit rose 16% year-on-year from $76 million during the second quarter of 2018. On an earnings call today, SkyWest chief executive Chip Childs says “we are happy with our business model” and the company aims to “remain nimble” with a cash liquidity plan to adapt to future markets.
The holding company reports $550 million in cash and securities. Its total debt of $3.1 billion included the acquisition of four Embraer E175 aircraft during the second quarter.
Its Utah-based regional carrier SkyWest Airlines, which operates under codeshare arrangements with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, “had a rough June” in part due to bad weather, Childs says. That contributed to an 8% year-on-year dip in operating revenue for SkyWest Inc., sinking from $805 million to $744 million.
Operating expenses decreased to $600 million, a 12% drop from $679 million during that quarter in 2018.
SkyWest divested 138 Embraer and Bombardier aircraft in January when it sold ExpressJet to ManaAir, a consortium of investors including United Airlines. Its current fleet of 482 aircraft is scheduled to receive the final deliveries of CRJs from Bombardier ahead of the airframer’s sale of the programme to Mitsubishi Aircraft. As part of the transaction, SkyWest also agreed to lease 20 CRJ200s to ExpressJet for up to five years
“We believe Mitsubishi will be able to embrace this model” of the CRJ and develop it within their Mitsubishi Regional Jet programme, Childs says.
SkyWest says it will lease 10 additional CRJ-700s to American, bringing that total to 70 CRJ-700s under long-term agreements with the US legacy carrier. “We’ll continue working with them to meet their long-term fleet needs”, Childs says of American.
He remains confident in the long-term partnerships with major US airlines.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
