Mesa Airlines

## What is Mesa Airlines!?

**Mesa Airlines, Inc.** is an American regional airline based in Phoenix, Arizona. It is an FAA Part 121-certificated air carrier operating under air carrier certificate number MASA036A issued on June 29, 1979. It is a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group and operates flights as American Eagle and United Express via respective code sharing agreements with American Airlines and United Airlines. It serves more than 180 markets in the Western Hemisphere. In a 1997 article from the *Journal of Air Transportation*, Mesa's safety record was noted as having the fewest incidents among domestic regional airlines at that time. Mesa filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2010, hoping to shed financial obligations for leases on airplanes it no longer needed, and emerged from bankruptcy in March 2011. Since 2013, Mesa has added more aircraft to its fleet than any other regional airline. In November 2017, Mesa opened a new training center in Phoenix. The 23,000-square-foot facility features a full-size CRJ-200 cabin trainer aircraft, 14 classrooms, and has the capacity to train 300 crew members at one time.

## Early days...

The original Mesa Air Shuttle was a flight division of JB Aviation in Farmington, New Mexico and operated a single route from Farmington to Albuquerque using a Piper Saratoga aircraft. In 1981 as the original Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) was discontinuing its flights between the two cities, Mesa obtained a twin engine Piper Navajo Chieftain and increased service on the route. In 1982 the original owners sold the company to Larry and Janie Risley. The Risleys quickly expanded the carrier by acquiring a fleet of 14-passenger seat Beechcraft 99 commuter turboprops and adding service throughout New Mexico and surrounding states with a hub at Albuquerque. In 1985 larger 19-passenger seat Beechcraft 1900's were acquired which replaced the Beech 99's and became the backbone of Mesa's fleet. By 1987 up to 47 daily departures were operating from Albuquerque to 18 cities. Also in 1987 a Denver hub was created when Mesa acquired Centennial Airlines which operated several routes from Denver into Wyoming. After an initial route from Farmington and Gallup to Phoenix began in 1985, Phoenix was expanded into a hub in 1989 with new routes throughout Arizona. In 1990, most Denver flights were incorporated into the United Express division which Mesa had acquired from Aspen Airways. In 1992, when Mesa established a code share with America West Airlines, its Phoenix hub was turned over to the America West Express division. A minor hub was also operated at Farmington in the late 1980s with up to 22 daily flights connecting Albuquerque, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City to Durango, Cortez, and Telluride, CO. For a brief time in 1995 and 1996, the Mesa Airlines operation at Albuquerque, the United Express operation in Denver, and the America West Express operation in Phoenix were all known as operated by Mountain West Airlines. In 1997 and 1998, routes from Little Rock to Nashville and Wichita and from Nashville to Tupelo were added, first as Mesa Airlines, then later as US Airways Express.

In 1997, Mesa established a small hub at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, using two Bombardier (formerly Canadair) CRJ200 regional jet aircraft, providing service from Fort Worth to San Antonio, Austin, and Houston Hobby, as well as new routes from Colorado Springs to Nashville and San Antonio. The venture was short-lived and these routes were all eliminated during corporate restructuring. The Albuquerque hub was merged into Air Midwest in 2001 but operated as a code share for Mesa Airlines until the hub was dissolved at the end of 2007.

In 1998, Mesa moved its headquarters from Farmington, NM to Phoenix, AZ

## Operating agreements

Topic: **America West Airlines**

In September 1992, Mesa negotiated a code sharing agreement with America West Airlines to operate as America West Express out of its Phoenix hub, serving 12 cities. These routes were originally from the independent Mesa operation and several Beech 1900D aircraft were painted in the America West Airlines scheme. The code share allowed increased frequency and increased load factors and expansion into several new markets.

On September 16, 2005, America West Airlines and US Airways completed their merger. Although the corporate side and operationally, those companies merged, as of May 2008, the two flight operations have not been merged and Mesa continues to code share with the new US Airways Group as US Airways Express under its America West Express code share agreement. It operated CRJ200 and CRJ900 aircraft from hubs in Charlotte and Phoenix, and Dash 8 aircraft from its Phoenix hub until late 2011, when during Mesa's restructuring in bankruptcy, coinciding with United's cancelation of any further CRJ 200 service by Mesa, the CRJ 200's and Dash 8's were removed from service. By early 2012, the only airframe Mesa uses for the "west" side of US Airways out of its Phoenix hub and the "East" side out of its Charlotte hub is with the CRJ 900.

Topic: **U.S Airways Express**

In November 1997, Mesa negotiated a code share agreement to provide service to US Airways as US Airways Express for 14 regional jets to various cities from its Philadelphia and Charlotte hubs. In 1998 and 2000, the agreement was expanded to 28 jets and then to 52 jets. The first CRJ200 aircraft began operating in 1998. As Mesa began taking deliveries of the Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft in 2000, the CRJs were transferred to the America West division, separating the fleet types.

In 2003, 20 CRJ200 aircraft were reintroduced to the US Airways Express division. With the reintroduction of the CRJ, the CRJ200 aircraft operated out of the Philadelphia hub, and the ERJ-145 aircraft operated out of the Charlotte hub.

In 2005, Mesa's code share agreement with US Airways was not reaffirmed in bankruptcy court, and Mesa began transitioning the aircraft to other code shares. Twenty-six ERJ aircraft were transitioned to Freedom Airlines, and the CRJ and remaining ERJs were transferred to Mesa's United Express operation.[*citation needed*] However, following the America West Airlines merger later that year, the Mesa contract for America West Express was retained and expanded to include non-former America West Express routes. All US Airways Express flying was converted to American Eagle on October 17, 2015 when the merger between American and US Airways was completed.

Topic: **American Eagle Airlines**

As the merger process between American Airlines and US Airways was progressing, Mesa Airlines began operating as American Eagle on November 6, 2014 with routes out of the American Airlines hubs at Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles using CRJ-900 aircraft. US Airways Express routes from Charlotte and Phoenix were gradually shifted to American Eagle until the transition and merger was completed on October 17, 2015.

Topic: **United Express Airlines**

In 1990, Mesa acquired Aspen Airways Denver hub and routes, except for Aspen's Denver to Aspen route. It attempted to acquire Aspen's code share with United, however United was unwilling to code share with an airline that only operated 19-seat turboprops. Mesa leased Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia aircraft from its former competitor in New Mexico, Air Midwest. With the Brasilias in hand, Mesa gained a code share with United for its Denver hub. Several Beech 1300 and Beech 1900 aircraft were repainted with the United Airlines scheme.

In 1995, California Pacific and its Los Angeles hub was merged into Mesa's United Express operation. After the closing of Superior Airlines' Columbus hub, its aircraft and crews were used to expand United Express into Portland and Seattle. In 1997, operational difficulties with the Denver hub and disagreements over the renewal of Mesa's WestAir subsidiary code share with United resulted in the cancellation of Mesa's code share.

In 2003, Mesa agreed to a service agreement with United for service out of their hubs at Chicago-O'Hare, Denver, and Washington-Dulles under the United Express banner. In October 2009 United decided to exercise its early termination option for the Dash 8 flying. The Dash 8 flying ended on April 30, 2010.[9] Around the same time, United decided not to extend its CRJ200 operation and as a result, all of the Mesa CRJ200s (26 aircraft) flying under United Express were phased out by April 30, 2010.[10] As of 2015, Mesa's United Express operations consisted of Embraer 175 flying out of the Houston hub and CRJ-700 flying out of the Washington Dulles hub.

## Fleet

As of February 2020, the Mesa Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:

## Fleet details

In March 2013, Mesa Airlines announced the leasing of nine Bombardier CRJ900s, which were previously operated by Uruguay's Pluna, for operations at US Airways. The aircraft entered the US Airways Express fleet between April and July 2013 and will operate under an eight-year capacity purchase agreement through 2021.[18]

In September 2013, Mesa Airlines announced an agreement with United Airlines which extends the operation of 20 CRJ700s through 2020. The agreement includes an order of 30 United-owned Embraer ERJ-175s that will be operated under contract by Mesa Airlines. Mesa Airlines later announced an agreement with United Airlines to add 18 Embraer 175 aircraft to Mesa's United Express fleet. Mesa will operate 48 Embraer aircraft for United Airlines. In October, the Company announced an agreement for the addition of 15 new aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2016, which has now increased to 18. Mesa currently operates 60 E175 aircraft and 20 Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft under the United Express brand.