This airline’s computer problems are still affecting Fresno flights, causing delays
SkyWest Airlines, the Utah-based company that operates the lion’s share of passenger airline flights to and from Fresno, has suffered a spate of cancellations and delays over the past two days, reportedly due to internal computer issues at the company.
On Thursday, eight of SkyWest’s scheduled flights into Fresno were canceled, and 14 others were delayed. They included two from Denver under the United Express banner, one from Los Angeles and two from San Francisco, all flights operated by SkyWest under a contract with United Airlines, and three from Salt Lake City that SkyWest operates on behalf of Delta Air Lines.
Also scuttled on Thursday were scheduled departures to San Francisco under the United brand and one to Phoenix under the American Airlines brand.
Delays also posed a problem for SkyWest. A total of 15 arrivals and departures on Thursday were pushed back, some by several hours.
The flight cancellations and delays are documented by FlightAware.com, a flight-tracking website.
Across its entire nationwide route network, SkyWest had 666 cancellations on Thursday, as well as 558 flight delays – the most of any single airline that day.
Most of the flights into and out of Fresno, while bearing the names of more familiar airlines, are operated by SkyWest under contracts with companies including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Of the 6,471 domestic flights leaving Fresno Yosemite International Airport from January through July this year, 4,424 of them – more than 68% – were SkyWest aircraft.
In a statement sent by SkyWest to The Fresno Bee late Thursday, the airline said it hoped it had solved the problem to prevent a repeat occurrence on Friday. “SkyWest experienced an internal technical issue resulting in approximately 700 flight cancellations before the issue was resolved Thursday evening,” the SkyWest statement said.
“We apologize to customers for the inconvenience; we are working to minimize the impact on Friday’s schedule and to return to normal operations as quickly as possible.”
More delays reported Friday
However, more cancellations and delays manifested on Friday morning: six canceled departures from Fresno by noon, including flights to San Diego, Denver, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, and one canceled flight from Los Angeles to Fresno.
Eleven delays in arrivals and departures were also reported.
The Fresno disruptions were among 568 cancellations and 498 delays recorded by mid-afternoon Friday on FlightAware.com for SkyWest flights.
SkyWest’s schedule issues come less than two weeks after Southwest Airlines canceled about 1,900 flights nationwide between Oct. 9 and 11, blaming bad weather and air-traffic control issues. That episode included several of Southwest’s Fresno flights to and from Denver and Los Angeles.
This story was originally published October 22, 2021 at 12:36 PM.
