SkyWest Cancels Hundreds of Flights Due to Technical Problem

Originally published on AeroNewsX

U.S. regional carrier, SkyWest Airlines was forced to cancel around 700 flights on Thursday, October 21st following an IT problem at the carrier. According to the airline, the disruption was caused by an internal computer issue, which resulted in flight operations being halted for a period of five hours. While the issues have since been resolved, there were a small number of disruptions and cancellations that have continued for a second day

Passengers across the United States were impacted by these flight cancellations on Thursday. Since SkyWest operates flights in partnership with a number of North American carriers. Flights operated by American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines were all affected when IT systems went down at the regional carrier. 

SkyWest Airlines Bombardier CRJ-701ER registered N752SK at San Diego International Airport. Photo by Brandon Ravelo | AeroNewsX.

According to the flight-tracking website, FlightAware, a total of 663 flights were cancelled across the United States, while a further 510 flights were delayed significantly. Some flight operations did resume by Thursday evening, however, the knock-on effects were still being felt on Friday, with almost 300 additional cancellations being reported. 

As a U.S. regional carrier that operates partnership flights for carriers like American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Alaska Airlines. SkyWest Airlines cancellations impacted passengers travelling on all these airlines, whether or not passengers knew the flight was being operated by SkyWest.

SkyWest Airlines is also the largest regional carrier in the U.S. and operate a fleet of around 570 aircraft, with 478 aircraft in active service. The carrier’s fleet (as of March 2021) is made up of 193 Embraer E175s, 40 Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) 900s, 104 CRJ 700s and 141 CRJ-200ER aircraft. Most of these aircraft are painted in the livery of other airlines. 

The issues at SkyWest are unfortunate for an airline that has had a relatively good year so far. In July, the airline reported a large profit for the second quarter of 2021, following the surge in passenger demand for domestic travel in the United States. While a return to profitability is good news, pressure on SkyWest is expected to build with U.S. airlines moving away from 50-seater aircraft and with a large CRJ-200 fleet SkyWest Airlines could face problems in the near future.