Wednesday, June 11, 2008

A top ranking SkyWest doesn’t need

Hailey flights among most delayed in nation


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

A SkyWest flight taxis at Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey. Photo by Mountain Express

The second and third most chronically delayed U.S. airline flights for April were SkyWest Airlines' service between Salt Lake City and Friedman Memorial Airport and return, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's "Air Traveler Consumer Report."

Flight 3678 from Salt Lake City and Flight 3732 from Friedman to Salt Lake each were late 95 percent of the time.

Ironically, however, SkyWest was listed as having the second best on-time arrival rate (84 percent) overall in its system-wide operations, with Hawaiian Airlines taking the top spot (90.5 percent) and Southwest Airlines at third (83.3 percent).

A SkyWest spokesperson, Amber Hunter, attributed statistics for the two delayed flights to schedule changes.

American Airlines topped the list of flight delays with its Flight 1555 from Miami to San Juan, which was late 96.7 percent of the time for April.

American or one of its regional partners operated 12 of the 15 most delayed flights, the DOT report said.

A complete statistical report on causes of delays and other data can be found at www.bts.gov.

Aside from the delayed flight listing, thus far in 2008 SkyWest has enjoyed a good year. In the first three months, passenger volume increased 3.2 percent over January-March of 2007 to 8,076,331 travelers. But profits were impacted by higher fuel costs. Fuel costs per seat mile leaped 26.8 percent between the first quarter of 2007 and 2008. Operating income dropped from $79.6 million to $68.2 million for the comparative quarters.

SkyWest listed more flights for the first quarter, too—217,510 in January-March 2008 versus 214,286 in 2007.




 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.