Largest US Passenger-Carrying Regional Airlines

The expansion of US regional airlines have created lots of opportunities for new pilots.  Did you ever wonder which of those airlines are large, and which are er, in terms of passengers emplaned?

The Regional Airline Association has published statistics for first quarter, 2006, and the airlines are ranked as follows, in terms of number of passengers:

Skywest Airlines (4,468,074 passengers emplaned) is number one, followed by American Eagle Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines, Mesa Airlines, Atlantic Southwest Airlines, Comair, Pinnacle Airlines, Horizon Air, and Chautauqua Airlines at number 10.

Numbered 11 to 20 are PSA Airlines (1,159,907 passengers emplaned), Mesaba Airlines, Trans States Airlines, Shuttle America, Piedmont Airlines, Executive Airlines, Colgan Air, Freedom Airlines, Gulfstream International Airlines and Gojet Airlines.