ST. GEORGE - SkyWest Airlines celebrated 20 years of dedicated service at Monterey Peninsula Airport on Tuesday.

"It's a beautiful part of the California coast and we're proud of our history serving the Monterey Bay region," said Jim Boyd, SkyWest vice president of customer service. "Monterey is a very attractive tourist destination that we have been happy to serve for 20 years."

SkyWest began operations at Monterey in March 1987 as a Delta Connection carrier to Los Angeles. In 1997, after signing an agreement with United Airlines, SkyWest began offering flights to San Francisco and added Denver as a daily destination last year. Today, SkyWest operates a combination of 30-passenger Embraer 120 Brasilia aircraft, and 50- and 70-passenger Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ200 and CRJ700) aircraft with 14 daily departures as United Express, including six daily departures to Los Angeles, seven to San Francisco and one departure to Denver. SkyWest also initiated Monterey's Delta Connection CRJ200 service in August 2005 with two daily departures to Salt Lake City.

SkyWest Airlines is celebrating its 35-year anniversary in 2007. System-wide, SkyWest has more than 10,000 employees and serves a total of 138 cities in 38 states and four Canadian provinces with more than 1,700 daily departures.