SkyWest Charter Finally Gets Approved, But It’s Not Clear Why Anyone Should Care

Back in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, airlines were scrambling. There were so many pilots that took an early retirement that nobody was ready for the very quick rebound in demand that led to a rapid increase in flights. The big airlines just kept taking pilots from their regionals, and the regionals were left scrambling to find anyone who was qualified. That’s when a plan fell into place for the largest regional SkyWest to fix its problem. Now, three years later, it’s been approved, but times are different and I’m not sure this is useful any longer.

SkyWest’s plan at the time was to create a new subsidiary called SkyWest Charter (SWC). Instead of flying under normal Part 121 rules, SWC would be a Part 135 operator. It would then use Part 380 authority to fly public charters. I’ve written about the mechanics of this before, so I don’t need to get into the weeds of it all. This is the kind of flying that JSX and Contour do. (SkyWest, by the way, now owns a chunk of Contour, another thing that has changed since the original filing.)

For an airline like SWC, the big benefit would have been the ability to have pilots fly the airplanes with fewer hours. SkyWest had enough pilots to operate most of its flying that was under a traditional “capacity purchase” agreement with the big airlines. Those airlines pay SkyWest to do the flying, so there is limited risk. But SkyWest also does “prorate” flying which is where it takes on all the risk, but it still is able to fly under the big airline brand.

If you think about all the flying that SkyWest does, it’s the 25 CRJ-200s flying prorate under the United Express banner that have to be at the bottom of the priority list. These airplanes fly mostly on Essential Air Service routes subsidized by the government, and they are the first things to get squeezed in a pilot shortage.

So, SkyWest turned to this SWC plan which would have an easier time finding pilots who could operate under Part 135 rules. The other big benefit of Part 135 is that it can fly out of non-traditional terminals. That’s why JSX really likes it, but for SWC which would want to seamlessly connect into United’s hubs, that was never appealing. This was a pilot play.

The only real downside is that to operate under Part 380/135, you can’t have more than 30 seats onboard. So SWC would take some of its 50-seat CRJ-200s — 18 to be exact — and reduce them to have only 30 seats. It’s not like these EAS routes would usually fill more than 30 seats anyway. Problem solved.

SWC was created in 2022 and up and running as a pure charter operator in 2023, but it needed commuter air carrier authorization in order to be able to operate under this scheme. The application was filed on June 21, 2022, and the Department of Transportation (DOT) promptly — and obnoxiously — did absolutely nothing with it.

It’s important to put this timing into context. At the time, SkyWest listed 25 routes that it wanted to switch to have SWC operate.

^{Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.}

This is the peak of SkyWest’s pilot troubles. Take a look at how these cities were served in June 2022.

^{Map via Cirium}

SkyWest was really struggling, running tag flights like Chicago – Decatur – Fort Leonard Wood and round-robins like Chicago – Mason City – Fort Dodge – Chicago. It was doing everything it could to keep serving these cities with its reduced pilot corps, but being able to move to SWC would provide real relief.

There was nothing wrong with SWC’s application. It was obviously fit to operate, but it got caught up in the fight against this type of operation. Airlines like American and Southwest fought this, primarily because they don’t like JSX being able to compete with them. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) fought it because it would weaken the upper hand the scarcity of pilots had given them.

The reality through all this was that SWC was completely qualified under the law. If the laws change to eliminate or alter the ability to use Part 380/135, that’s a different issue. But that shouldn’t have stopped SWC from being approved. Now, with a new administration in place, it has magically received the green light.

With SWC approved (pending any objections which I can’t imagine will change anything), it is now free to implement the plan that it wanted to put into place three years ago. The thing is, times have changed and it probably doesn’t want to implement the same plan anyway.

The 18 CRJ-200s are in the SWC fleet as originally expected, and of these 25 cities, SkyWest still serves most of them. The only ones it lost were Pueblo (CO) to Southern Airways Express and both Vernal (UT) and Paducah (KY) to Contour. But even with the 22 that remain, service looks a lot different than it did in 2022. Here is the current plan for June 2025:

^{Map via Cirium}

There is now just one lonely round-robin left, and frequencies are up as well. Here’s another interesting way to look at it:

^{Data via Cirium}

You can see that in mid-2022, the number of flights dipped a little but the block time tanked. That’s because they used all those tags and round-robins to keep service going with fewer cities. But now you can see that since last fall, block time has climbed back up again as the ability to fly these routes straight into the hub returns.

But here’s where it gets even less relevant. Even if there was a pilot shortage, the approval reiterates this:

SWC has stated it will use dual captains holding ATP certificates on its flight decks, utilize active flight dispatching, adhere to FAR Part 117 rest requirements, and implement Safety Management Systems and Advanced Qualification Program training. SWC also stated it plans to operate only at airports
with traditional TSA security checkpoints.

This means it isn’t looking to use pilots at all who aren’t qualified to fly Part 121. The only real benefit at this point is the ability to use pilots who are older than the mandated age 65 retirement for Part 121. That’s great and all, but again, the pilot shortage doesn’t seem to be a problem.

So… then what’s the point? Why does SkyWest still want to do this? Maybe it’s because the airplanes have already been converted into 30 seats and painted, and it wants to scrap the ones currently flying? Maybe it wants to prepare itself to operate during future pilot shortages? Maybe there’s something about the private charter work that’s made easier with a Part 135 operation. Or maybe it’s just stubborn and wants to follow through.

We will, of course, learn more once this approval is finalized and SkyWest announces its plans.