Skywest will be back in Cedar City. As a former employee of the Cedar City Airport I have mixed feelings about this. I’m going to just list positive and negative points of having Skywest back in Cedar City.
There is a whole political side to this which I will try to stay out of.
Benifits
1. Reliable service – Since I worked at the Cedar City Airport while both Skywest and Mesa Airlines serviced flights I can say that Skywest was my more reliable then Mesa. They also had the advantage of being able to bus people to St. George if they had problems in Cedar City.
2. Larger Planes – Skywest flys 30 Passangers planes with a flight attendant and bathroom while Mesa only flew a 19 passanger plane with no in flight service.
3. Local Roots – Skywest has deep roots in our community, it will be a lot easier for Skywest to come back then it was for Mesa to start in a hostile enviroment.
4. Customer Service – This one is self explanitory.
Negatives -
1. Cost – Not only are flights more expensive with Skywest the amount the government subsidizes is also higher.
2. Connections – Skywest has contracted to do 2 flights a day to Salt Lake City. Mesa was flying to Pheonix, Salt Lake and Las Vegas. This makes connecting with Skywest much harder and also increases cost as Salt Lake is typically an expensive airport to fly out of.