Bombardier Aerospace announced that it has received firm orders for four CRJ700 NextGen regional jets from SkyWest Airlines based in St. George, Utah. The purchase is valued at $148 million, and the 65 seat planes will be flown under the Delta Connection banner.
SkyWest Airlines and its sister carrier, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, now operate 406 CRJ200, CRJ700 and CRJ900 regional jets, the world's largest fleet of CRJ aircraft.
Including the transaction announced today, Bombardier has taken firm orders for 1,713 CRJ Series aircraft, 1,606 of which had been delivered to operators around the world as of Oct. 31.
SkyWest, Inc., the parent company that operates SkyWest Airlines, Atlantic Southeast Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines, also announced monthly traffic data for its combined airline operations.
SkyWest reported a 34.2 percent increase in departures to 93,298 for November compared to 69,512 for the same period last year. Passenger boardings for November increased 43.9 percent to 3,957,560 compared to 2,751,167 for the same period last year.SkyWest also reported a 47.1 percent increase in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) for November, while available seat miles (ASMs) increased 42.9 percent compared to November 2009.
The combined airlines generated 2.01 billion RPMs for the month, while ASMs increased to 2.54 billion. Load factor was 79.2 percent compared to 77.0 percent, up 2.2 percentage points compared to November 2009.
