St. George-based SkyWest Inc., which makes commuter flights for Delta Air Lines Inc., United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc., wants to add a fourth major carrier as a partner.
SkyWest also wants to increase the amount of flights it makes for Continental using smaller jets, SkyWest chief executive officer Jerry Atkin said in an interview Wednesday.
"Our objective is to add, do more work with, Continental and add at least one other major carrier partner," Atkin said. "It's from a risk standpoint. We'd like to have our eggs in four baskets instead of two."
SkyWest has remained profitable on a yearly basis while its larger partners have had billions of dollars in combined losses since 2001.
SkyWest has reduced expenses and operates under contracts that let it pass on costs from rising fuel prices to Delta, United and Continental. The airline flies 30- to 70-seat regional jets and turboprop planes.
United, a unit of Chicago-based UAL Corp., has operated under bankruptcy court protection for more than two years. Atlanta-based Delta avoided bankruptcy last year by gaining concessions from pilots and creditors.
SkyWest said in January it would phase out turboprop flying for Continental Connection between March and June. Continental, the No. 5 U.S. carrier, is based in Houston.
The St. George carrier currently does about 59 percent of its business with United and 39 percent with Delta. Continental Connection flying accounted for about 1.5 percent of SkyWest's annual available seat miles production in 2004 and less than 1 percent of its annual operating income for that year.
Contributing: Matthew Sigel