Mesa has finally reached its end state as a regional carrier. It is now an airline that flies one type of aircraft (Embraer 175) for one major partner (United). Chances are, this is as good as it gets for the airline. It remains United’s decision whether Mesa lives or dies.
The CRJ-900 fleet goes back more than 20 years to the America West days. Those airplanes floated through the various mergers to end up flying as American Eagle until that agreement was ended two years ago.
That left United as the airline’s only partner, but while United had placed a large fleet of Embraer 175s with the airline, Mesa didn’t have the pilots to fly them. So, when the American agreement ended, it took those CRJ-900s and their pilots and had them fly for United, filling in until a full training transition could be finished. That apparently took two years.
The final three aircraft ended their runs on the late afternoon of February 28 before being sent to Tucson to be made into beer cans:
- N249LR (built for Uruguay’s PLUNA in 2011 before coming to Mesa in 2013) arrived Houston from Memphis around 4:30pm
- N951LR (built for Italy’s Air One in 2007 before coming to Mesa in 2014) arrived Houston from El Paso around 4:45pm
- N329MS (built for the UAE’s Heavylift International in 2007 before coming to Mesa in 2013) arrived Houston from Oklahoma City around 6:30pm
Ok, maybe these three won’t be made into beer cans, but those early-build models for America West can’t have much life left in them, especially considering they were unique airplanes. (You can see the difference by looking at the winglets. They were nearly vertical vs more slanted on later models.)
But now, with these airplanes gone, Mesa has a fleet of 60 Embraer 175s it is flying for United and nothing else. Even those old 737s flying cargo were pulled out of service a year ago.
This is a far cry from what Mesa used to fly. At one point, it had a dizzying number of subsidiaries that primarily flew 19 to 37 seaters including Air Midwest (Kansas City), CalPac (Los Angeles), FloridaGulf (Tampa), Liberty Express (Pittsburgh), Mesa Airlines (Albuquerque), Skyway Airlines (Milwaukee, before Midwest Express went in a different direction for Skyway), Superior Airlines (Columbus), and WestAir (West Coast).
It also had several jet subsidiaries for various purposes including Desert Sun which flew Fokker 70s for America West Express, Freedom Airlines which operated as Delta Connection, Kunpeng which was a weird and failed foray into China, and the much-hated go! which flew interisland Hawaiʻi under its own brand after crushing Aloha through, shall we say, questionable tactics.
Eventually this spaghetti mess all got cleaned up and put under Mesa. It was cleaner… but smaller.
Mesa Departures by Aircraft Type
Data via Cirium
The 19-seater flying ended in 2008, and the ERJ-145 ended when Delta kicked Mesa out in 2010. The Dash-8s followed the same year when Mesa went all-jet. The CRJ-200s petered out in 2014, but that’s also when Mesa received a lifeline in the form of an agreement to fly Embraer 175s. Service actually grew up until the pandemic, but then the CRJ-700s went away pretty quickly and the flying shrunk on the two remaining fleets.
Now, flying has continued to decline to the lowest point in ages. Perhaps it’ll be helpful to look at this from an airline partner perspective.
Mesa Departures by Marketing Airline
Data via Cirium
Other than United’s growth before the pandemic when Embraer 175s were rolling in, it has been a downhill slide for Mesa the entire time.
Now, Mesa has sold off the last of its owned airplanes to United and leased them back to help generate cash to pay off loans. The pilot shortage should be behind the airline, as it is for the rest of the regionals. So now, it’s just a question of what Mesa can do.
This July, the plan is to operate slightly over 9 block hours per aircraft. That’s not a huge number, but it’s better than things had been. With the CRJ-900s gone, Mesa will be out of Denver entirely. It will now split its fleet between Houston/IAH and Washington/Dulles, where the Embraer 175s have always been.
Mesa still hasn’t submitted its quarterly report for the last 3 months of 2024 or the 10-K for its last fiscal year which ended September 30. It says it is going to restate earnings. United is under contract with the airline for at least some of the fleet into 2028. I’m not sure on exactly how many aircraft go that far out, but it’s a significant enough chunk.
The real question is… does United want this to continue? It has the ability to remove aircraft from Mesa, and if it does that entirely, Mesa’s days are done. Undoubtedly United likes having a regional that is desperate to keep it happy. Further, United CEO Scott Kirby goes way back with Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein, so there’s always a possibility that the relationship somehow saves the company once again.
But Mesa’s ability to shift between partners and subsidiaries is long gone. This is now a one-trick pony, and it better hope it can perform to United’s liking.
