Regional Airlines - Important to Aviation and New Pilots

Regional airlines may quite likely be your first job as a young professional pilot. They have become very important partners to the major or legacy airlines. Regionals carried 156 million pasengers in the US in 2006, with 14,000 flights per day. This accounts for 50 percent of the US domestic schedule. Nearly one in four airline passengers travel on regional airlines.

The regional airlines typically serve smaller cities and feed passengers to the larger legacy airlines. An example is SkyWest, which operates 60% of its flights on behalf of Delta and 40% for United. SkyWest also devotes 15 of its 436 aircraft to Midwest Airlines. The company also purchased Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) in 2005.

Some 40 percent of the US commercial airline fleet is operated by regionals airlines with its 1,700 jets and 1,100 piston and turboprop aircraft.

For new pilots looking for opportunities with airlines, this is especially important: Each additional regional jet requires seven to nine new pilots -- and in the national/regional airline sector, 28 of 34 airlineswere hiring in 2007. Of the major/legacy airlines, 11 of 15 were hiring last year.