That's 18 Conversions And Four Firm New Orders

Bombardier Aerospace said Tuesday that SkyWest of St. George, UT, has wrapped up a deal for 22 Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets for its Delta Connection operation. The transaction includes conversion rights to other Bombardier CRJ aircraft. In addition, the 80 options for CRJ700 aircraft previously announced were reaffirmed as part of this agreement.

The revised contract is valued at approximately $798 million. If all options are exercised, the entire order could be worth $ 3.7 billion US.

This transaction converts the 18 Delta Air Lines CRJ200 aircraft on backlog assumed by SkyWest as part of their recent acquisition of Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) and includes four incremental orders. SkyWest also retains 15 CRJ700 firm orders on Bombardier's backlog from a previous transaction.

"With our recent purchase of Atlantic Southeast Airlines, we agreed to add 22 regional jets to the Delta Connection route network," said Jerry Atkin, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, SkyWest Inc. "The CRJ700 continues to meet our growth requirements because of the benefit of commonality with existing CRJ fleets at SkyWest Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines."

"We are very proud of our long partnership with SkyWest," said Steven Ridolfi, President, Bombardier Regional Aircraft. "We appreciate this endorsement of the CRJ Series and the CRJ700 as the regional jet of choice for both SkyWest and Delta Connection in order to meet their future system and market requirements. The CRJ700 aircraft's low operating costs represent a real benefit to operators in today's challenging market."

FMI: www.aerospace.bombardier.com