Good day. Welcome to the SkyWest, Inc. 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I would like to turn the conference over to James Welch, Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I'm James Welch, Chairman of the Board of SkyWest. Welcome to the SkyWest 2026 Annual Shareholders Meeting. I would like to thank our shareholders for joining us today in this virtual format. If you encounter any technical difficulties accessing or navigating the web portal for this meeting, please use the technical support phone number provided on the meeting webpage. Consistent with past practice, we will conduct the business portion of the meeting first. Following the meeting, I will turn the call over to Chip Childs, President and Chief Executive Officer of SkyWest, for closing comments. Any shareholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions contained therein as the polls are now open.
Shareholders who have already sent in their proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. As outlined in the proxy statement, shareholders were given the opportunity to submit questions pertaining to the business matters in advance of today's meeting. I will now introduce the directors of SkyWest who are nominated for election and participating on today's call. James Welch, Russell Chip Childs, Smita Conjeevaram, Derek Leathers, Meredith Madden, Ronald Mittelstaedt, and Keith Smith. Also joining us today are several corporate officers of SkyWest, including Chip Childs, President and CEO, Robert Simmons, Chief Financial Officer, Wade Steel, Chief Commercial Officer, Eric Woodward, Chief Accounting Officer, and Dale Hansen, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.
Other guests joining us today include Shelene Brown from Zions First National Bank, serving as our transfer agent, and Chris Okawa from Ernst & Young, serving as our independent auditor. We will now call the annual shareholders meeting to order. An affidavit has been delivered attesting to the fact that a notice of the annual meeting, the proxy statement describing the matters of the business to be addressed at this meeting, and instructions on how to vote were mailed on or about March 25th, 2026, and were made available to each shareholder of record as of the close of business on March 5th, 2026, the record date for this meeting. On that date, there were 40,178,237 shares of common stock issued and outstanding.
A list of shareholders as of the close of business on the record date is available on the web portal for your review. The board of directors has appointed Zions First National Bank to act as an inspector of election at this meeting. Zions is represented today by Shelene Brown. I have been informed by the inspector of election that the shares present, attending virtually or represented by proxy, are in excess of the quorum requirements, so we will begin the meeting. I declare this meeting lawfully and properly convened. We will proceed to the business for which this meeting has been called, as stated in the notice of annual meeting. The meeting will proceed as follows. First, I will introduce each of the four items that are to be voted upon at this meeting.
After completion of the four items of business, I will report the results of the balloting and adjourn the official part of the meeting. Afterwards, Chip Childs, SkyWest President and CEO, will provide closing comments. The first item to be voted upon at this meeting is the election of the seven nominees for director described in the proxy statement to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders of the company and until the respective successors have been duly elected and qualified. The board of directors recommends that you vote for the election of each of the seven nominees. The company's proxy statement contains the names and biographies of each nominee. The second item of business is commonly referred to as a say on pay proposal.
We are asking our shareholders to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the company's named executive officers as more fully described in the proxy statement. This vote is not intended to address any specific element of compensation. Rather, the vote relates to all aspects of compensation of those executive officers as described in the proxy statement. The Board of Directors recommends that you vote for this proposal. The third item of business is the proposal to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for the year ending December 31st, 2026. The Board of Directors recommends that you vote for this proposal. The last item of business we will address at this meeting is a shareholder proposal as described in the proxy statement.
As You Sow, on behalf of LongView 600 Small Cap Index Fund, a shareholder of SkyWest will be allowed to present the proposal at this time. Operator, please allow the representative to speak for two minutes.
Good morning, President Childs and members of the board. I am Rachel Lowy and speak on behalf of As You Sow. I formally move proposal for requesting that SkyWest commission an independent third party to assess whether the company's policies and practices align with the internationally supported rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. SkyWest successful operations depend on a stable and engaged workforce. This includes pilots, flight attendants, and ground crew who show up every day to keep passengers safe. How SkyWest treats those employees is not a peripheral concern. It is a core operational and financial risk. For a highly labor-dependent company like SkyWest, effective human capital management is core to operational continuity and long-term value creation. Yet SkyWest actions seem to indicate that it is anti-union. It operates a public website dedicated to discouraging unionization.
Management has allegedly restricted employees from discussing unions in crew rooms, and airport police have allegedly been called to remove flight attendants for talking about organizing. Most concerning are the allegations related to the SkyWest Inflight Association. In 2023, the Association of Flight Attendants filed a lawsuit against SkyWest for violating the Railway Labor Act, including the termination of union activists and the unlawful establishment of a company-sponsored union. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against that same company union for interference in its own internal elections. Seven in 10 Americans approve of unions, and 15% live in households with union membership, with a notably higher percentage of support for unions coming from people under 30. The SkyWest Inflight Association appears to create brand, legal, and operational risk for SkyWest. This resolution does not require SkyWest to become a pro-union company.
It asks for an independent assessment of whether current practices align with internationally recognized labor rights standards. Investors deserve to know whether SkyWest's workforce practices are creating unnecessary legal, operational, and reputational exposure and what the company is doing about it. Thank you.
Mr. Childs, you may respond to the shareholder presentation.
Thank you, James. Over the past 53 years, SkyWest has been very successful with our people based on two primary guiding principles: integrity and transparency. There is no doubt that as we continue to press forward in a challenging industry, continuing to embrace these principles is more important than ever. Our people are the key to our success, and our four major airline partners recognize the value of SkyWest's unique culture. We appreciate their support and confidence as well as the support of our shareholders. We look forward to continuing to work together with our people to evolve and succeed.
Thank you, Chip. The board of directors has considered the proposal and recommends that you vote against it for the reasons set forth in the proxy statement. As all of the shareholders virtually present at the annual meeting or by proxy have had an opportunity to vote, I will now declare that the polls are closed. The inspector of election has provided her report on the results of the voting. The report of the inspector of election indicates as follows. One, each of the seven nominees for director has received a majority of the votes cast and has been elected as a director of the company. Two, the proposal to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the company's named executive officers has been approved.
Three, the proposal to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for the year ending December 31st, 2026, has been approved. Four, the shareholder proposal described in the proxy statement was not approved. These results will be included as a part of the official record of this meeting. There being no further business to come before the meeting, this concludes the formal portion of the meeting. The meeting is hereby adjourned. I will now turn the call over to Chip Childs for closing comments.
Thank you for your interest in SkyWest and for joining us today. Demand for SkyWest services has never been stronger, and we are focusing on the core areas of our business that I believe will set us up for long-term growth. I also want to thank our professionals for their teamwork and dedication to exceptional service. Together, we remain focused on long-term success. I will now turn the call over to the operator.
The company did not receive any questions from shareholders pertaining to today's business matters and will forego a question-and-answer session. Thank you for joining SkyWest's annual shareholder meeting. This concludes today's call, and you may now disconnect. Good day.