Business View Magazine - Dec 2023

FOR YOUR PARTNERSHIP Thank You DEVILS LAKE REGIONAL AIRPORT regional jet from 50 seats down to 30 and operate their flights on a public timetable open for anyone to book. It’s also an indirect way for SkyWest, the nation’s largest regional airline, to deal with a crippling pandemic-induced labor shortage. It lost as many as 1,500 of its captains to higher-paying, larger airlines over the last few years, when COVID caused a rash of retirements and resignations in their flight crews. When flights are classified as charters, carriers can use older or less experienced pilots who would not be eligible for hiring on large jets, making it easier for SkyWest to fill its cockpits. SkyWest’s move has become a major flash point in the industry, attracting fierce opposition from the Air Line Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and other aviation labor groups that claim the plan will cause flights to be less safe. SkyWest refutes that allegation, noting that even as a charter operation, it will continue to comply with all commercial safety standards and that scheduled charter flying is virtually indistinguishable from regular airline operations. 346 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 12