SkyWest Inc. will replace 20 small regional jets with 10 bigger jets it flies for Delta Air Lines, but the swap will do little to raise the airline's capacity to carry passengers.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a SkyWest subsidiary, will operate the new 76-seat CRJ900 aircraft. ASA flies for Delta Air Lines under the Delta Connection banner.
The jets are replacements for older 50-seat CRJ200s, which grew too expensive to fly as jet fuel prices surged to record levels last year.
They "will provide about 3 percent more [available seat miles] on an annual basis," Michael Kraupp, SkyWest vice president of finance, said Monday.
Available seat miles are a yardstick of capacity. They measure the number of seats for sale and the length of flights. The new jets will have fewer total seats but can fly farther than the aircraft they will replace.
The CRJ900s will go into service this spring. They were ordered by Delta, which has been pruning inefficient CRJ200s from its fleet to save money. The CRJ200s operated by SkyWest were scheduled to be removed from Delta Connection service next year.
Delta allotted the replacement jets to Atlanta-based ASA. Kraupp said routes haven't been assigned yet, but the new jets will be the first CRJ900s to operate from Atlanta, where Delta is also based.
"It provides additional CRJ growth and deliveries to ASA, which hasn't taken new deliveries for quite some time," Kraupp said.
ASA has had one of the worst on-time performance records of airlines tracked by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
SkyWest Inc. is based in St. George. Its other subsidiary, SkyWest Airlines, flies as Delta Connection for Delta, United Express for United Airlines and Midwest Connect for Midwest Airlines.
Last month, SkyWest Inc. said its passenger flying capacity fell 13.2 percent in November, compared with the same month a year earlier. The decline mostly reflected cuts in domestic capacity imposed by Delta since January 2008.
