United Airlines announced in a Q3 earnings report that regional partner SkyWest Airlines will operate the CRJ-550 beginning in December. As first reported by Edward Russell, the regional behemoth will operate 11 of the type initially under the United Express banner.
From @united's Q3 earnings release: @SkyWestAirlines will begin flying 11 dual-class CRJ550s for United from December.
— Edward Russell (@ByERussell) October 15, 2024
Background on how the 50-seat CRJ550 has carved itself a niche in the US regional market: https://t.co/kF6LzdxFN8 $UAL pic.twitter.com/PnRaQKKo4o
The CRJ-550 burst onto the scene with United’s regional partner GoJet back in 2019 and was meant to help the carrier navigate the scope clause restrictions which were some of the most punitive in the industry. The CRJ-550 is essentially a reconfigured CRJ-700 equipped with only 50 seats. This allows the carrier to use larger, more premium aircraft while staying under the limit of the larger 70/76 seat regional aircraft.
For years, GoJet operated the CRJ-550 exclusively for United Express. However, earlier this year, SkyWest announced that they would begin operating the type on behalf of Delta Connection as the carrier phased out its CRJ-200 fleet. The addition of the 11 CRJ-550s for United brings SkyWest’s total to 30 (it operates 19 for Delta).
While we don’t have many details about how United will utilize the additional aircraft, I have a sneaking suspicion that it will involve the carrier’s Denver hub. United has expanded rapidly in Colorado, opening new lounges and launching new routes. There have also been reports that it is the carrier’s most profitable hub and they have a large regional jet operation serving the Mountain West.
With the aircraft scheduled to begin service in December, we should know shortly how exactly the carrier plans to utilize the planes. I’m sure eagle-eyed aviation route experts like IshrionA will have more information soon and we’ll be sure to update this post once we know more.
Summary
United’s regional partner, SkyWest Airlines, will operate 11 CRJ-550 aircraft under the United Express brand beginning in December. While we don’t yet know how the carrier will utilize these additional aircraft, it will no doubt represent a positive for passengers thanks to the abundance of premium seating and available storage.
Oh yes please more of these. Though I’ve actually never flown on a CRJ-550 successfully.
I’ve got 86 segments on UA this year and about 35 of them have been on 50-seaters (out of 48 UA Express segments).
Thoughts on my DEN prediction? I don’t see them taking over flying from GoJet but I feel like UA saw DL introduce the CRJ-550s at SLC and wanted their own in the Mountain West.
I would agree with you on DEN. There are some smaller UA markets that I could see having premium demand namely Wyoming/Montana especially seasonally…. thinking like Casper, West Yellowstone, etc. This also gives them another option for Aspen to make capacity adjustments. There are a few longer markets UA runs a 50 seater on EAS/capacity reason-wise where they are competing with Delta… UA is flying 2 hours plus on a CRJ while DL has a CRJ-550/700.
I would love to see them re-enter some of the smaller markets they left during the pandemic. With your prediction about them being based in DEN…I’m thinking they could restart service to places like COU (who just debuted a brand new terminal right after UA left). Whether or not COU sees the 550 or the 200…the just need some competition there as AA is the only carrier.
While I could see them re-entering some smaller markets, COU seems more likely to get service to ORD from UA compared to DEN as its half the distance.
You never know… UA has been splitting it up a lot. Joplin and Sioux City for example have CRJs to both ORD and DEN. Lincoln same thing. Also there are a number of UA cities in North Dakota who are solely DEN even though ORD would be 45-60 minutes closer.
True, but United would have to undercut AA significantly on price to convince passengers to backtrack to DEN (always possible pax are headed west) over shorter hops to DFW/ORD on AA.