Tag Archives for mesa airlines.
Republic Airways and Mesa Airlines announced a plan to merge and operate a company with a combined 310 Embraer E-175 aircraft and representing $1.9 billion in annual revenue. Currently, Republic operates regional flights for American, United and Delta while Mesa is down to a contract only to fly for United. Under the deal, Republic shareholders will have 88% of the carrier and Mesa shareholders get 6% – 12%.
American Airlines is eliminating service entirely to Long Beach, California; Columbus, Georgia; and Del Rio, Texas. American Airlines is the only carrier serving Del Rio. This is the result of losing Mesa Airlines as a regional partner.
United dropped Air Wisconsin and gained more Mesa. Neither is a great experience, but the trade seems to align with United’s network strategy and American’s cost strategy. The Mesa bankruptcy stalking horse that had been much-discussed likely played a role in the ability for Mesa and American to terminate, since if they didn’t Mesa wouldn’t be able to continue ‘losing $5 million per month’ and therefore American’s ability to insist on either specific performance or penalties wasn’t sustainable indefinitely.
Regional carrier Mesa Airlines is rumored to be considering Chapter 11 bankruptcy, or as they say Chapter 22 because this would be the airline’s second trip to the courthouse. They last used the bankruptcy process to shed aircraft obligations in 2010.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
