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.
24 comments on “Mesa Retires the CRJ-900 and Hopes United Sticks Around”
gee, what a shame that would be if UA pulls the plug on Ornstein! couldn’t happen to a better guy!
Mesa’s history is the stuff of opera: unquestioned fielty, betrayal, manipulation, whipsaw, and ultimately dependence on a patron known to be the black widow of regionals.
Long standing relationships are a thin bond with UA. Ask Ask Wisconsin.
It’s so true. Someone really needs to write a book about Mesa’s storied history. Nothing would surprise me in the least if Mesa pulls an eleventh hour miracle and lives to fight another day. I honestly think it’s the scrappiest airline that’s ever existed. Or, as others may view it, the airline that just won’t die.
With Southwest’s news this week, it’s only a matter of time before they need regional lift. Mesa could step in, especially in PHX and DEN. However, the folks at Air Wisconsin are probably thinking the same.
The terms of Southwest’s contract with their pilots explicitly forbid contracting flights out to a regional operator. That’s very unlikely to be renegotiated. If they start using smaller aircraft, they’ll be flown directly by SWAPA pilots.
Even if this weren’t an issue, Mesa wouldn’t be able to provide anything to Southwest in the short term, because they don’t own any planes! They sold all their planes to United, and presumably the terms of their lease-back are not going to allow them to fly those aircraft for other airlines.
Air Wisconsin is a nonstarter because Southwest is not going to be interested in CRJ200s. The economics just don’t work except on the most business-heavy routes.
From what other sources are saying SWAPA new NDA agreement with WN they would get a 51% majority stake in a Regional partner should WN elect to try and Buy a regional affiliate.
The regional partner would fall under the same Union umbrella as SWAPA.
The new affiliate to funnel Pilots into the Mainline operations. Basically You couldn’t stay as a Lifer as a senior Captain at the Regional after 5 years you’ll have to Upgrade to mainline.
WN flight attendant union would fly Both airlines to reduce crew cost and scheduling.
Now the question is Whether Southwest buys someone that Has E175 available.
Mesa sounds good but United Owns all the aircraft so(?) .
That leaves just Breeze in the traditional sense.
BJ talk of Small aircraft type has the industry buzzing in over shadowing of the Bag Fee announcement.
The Air Wisconsin folks may be great people and I flew on their metal a lot out of ORD decades ago, liked the BAe146s to small/midsize Wisconsin cities, but may they NOT bring back a bunch of CRJ200s, the worst RJ ever developed! Even if they go to WN and I’m extremely unlikely to ever get on one of them…
I loved riding on that BAe146; such a quiet ride compared to what else was available at the time. And it looked cool…. Shortest flight I ever took: MSN to ORD. I think we were in the air for less than 20 minutes.
Chris – Quiet… until it deployed those flaps! Sounded like a screeching eagle!
I was always bummed the Dornier 328Jet didn’t take off as a suitable replacement (which was understandable for a host of reasons).
Why didn’t it take off (no pun intended)? I flew on them a few times from Cincinnati on a Delta regional and really liked them.
I flew MKE to ORD years ago on United or American.
During the flight the captain told us that it was the shortest flight (possibly the shortest “mainline, non-RJ/prop” flight? not sure) that the airline flew.
DL used to fly MIA-FLL years ago on 757 in the middle of the night. 21 miles blocked at 22 minutes.
Eastern flew MIA-FLL and FLL-MIA. It was in the schedule with a continuation to a city further north and back. I worked for Eastern and flew that route on L-1011, DC-9 and 727. I once recall a guy sitting next to me saying “long enough for two cigarettes” when smoking was allowed.
When I lived in Houston, Continental offered 2 or 3 daily flights between EFD and IAH on their ATRs
Interesting to see regional airlines being ‘streamlined’ over the last few years. As I look up wiki for UA express, DL connection, and AA eagle, there are only two regionals that flies for two or more major airlines (skywest and republic) while all others are either wholly owned by DL/AA or fly ‘only’ for UA (once Wisconsin gone from AA). The picture was a lot more complicated before Covid, I think. Hope the structure get even more simplified – much better at irrop situations.
I understand that there is something in the UA pilot contract that forbids UA from owning more than 50% of a regional, that same restriction is not faced by DL and AA, thus the difference between them.
Even if UA can’t “wholly own” a regional, the number of regionals may continue to shrink and SW may be the winner of that situation.
That said, the CRJ200s and ERJ145s can’t go away soon enough!
Weird to have an airline named “Mesa” that now only flies from Houston and DC. Airlines can be a Ship of Theseus sometimes.
I wonder if they will relocate HQ from Phoenix to Houston
Who in their right mind would want to move from Phoenix to Houston?
the US regional airline industry is reaching its final chapters.
While the big 3 plus AS have used regional aircraft for years to support smaller hubs and to provide feed from smaller cities to larger hubs, regional aircraft are much less economical to operate. post covid labor rates soared for regional airlines and there is no such thing as new generation aircraft in the US regional carrier fleet.
All airlines are upgauging within their mainline fleets; some such as DL made the decision over a decade ago to get rid of hundreds of small regional jets by adding small mainline aircraft. UA is now seeing the writing on the wall which is that many regional jets will be too old to use later this decade.
There are enough E175s around and still being built that all 4 US airlines that use RJs will have regional operations well into the 2030s but there is far less need for multiple operators and there is likely little need to negotiate for lower rates from regional operators.
Mesa might be the last airline that will fight to hold onto its last contracts with United and United might not want to deal w/ the operational disruption of moving those aircraft to other operators, at least all at one time.
It is indeed fair to say that Mesa’s days are numbered.
Couldn’t have happened to a better airline/ceo! /s
With the pilot shortage over, and supply likely to be exacerbated by one, but probably two domestic carriers going tango uniform this year, it’s the perfect time for someone to emerge offering lower wages to compete directly against SkyWest.
It’s really kind of sad to see the many pundits and other commentators who seem to be rooting for their least favorite airlines to be liquidated. Obviously, schadenfreude is alive and well among many airline enthusiasts.
I was a gate agent for AA at an outstation right after the merger. We started getting Mesa flights from DFW, later, PHX. I recall the first time I went into the cockpit and was floored at the amount of MEL stickers on the instrument panel. The captain on the flight told me “they are all like this”. We used to joke that MESA meant “Maintenance on Every Single Aircraft”. They also cancelled way more flights than the other regionals while I was there. When I was assigned a Mesa flight I always had a plan to get the passengers reaccommodated. The crews were great though, and the service was good. Flew on Mesa CRJ-900 many many times.