Comair earned FAA's prestigious Diamond Award for excellence in aviation maintenance training, while SkyWest received the agency's Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) Gold Award for outstanding attendance in initial and recurrent maintenance training.

Comiar earned its award for the 12th consecutive year. In 2005, more than 80 percent of Comair's maintenance technicians completed the continuous training required for eligibility in the FAA program. The figure is up from 72 percent from a year-ago. Comair's maintenance technicians completed nearly 32,000 hours of safety and technical compliance training in 2005, more than double the 14,000 hours completed in 2004.

SkyWest's Gold Certificate of Excellence, presented to companies based on the percentage of employees who received individual AMT awards each year, came for the second consecutive year. Thirty percent of eligible employees received individual AMT awards. The airline cited employees in Colorado Springs, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Tucson for Diamond level participation in the program. In addition, Salt Lake City earned a Silver Award and Palm Springs earned a Bronze. Each of the five award levels, beginning with the Bronze Award and ending with the Diamond Award, require additional training beyond standard FAA trainings on regulations and policy.