Mesa Airlines, which operates regional flights on behalf of American Airlines’ offshoot American Eagle, has announced that it is to wind down its services in March next year, prior to halting all its American Eagle flights on April 3. In addition to this announcement, the carrier has also announced that it is finalising an agreement with United Airlines, which will involve transitioning its fleet of CRJ900 75-seat regional jets to United Express.
Currently American Eagle is made up of three American Airlines’ subsidiaries and three contract carriers, one of which is Mesa, providing 3,400 daily flights under a codeshare agreement, usually operating flights to smaller American cities.
According to Reuters news agency, American Airlines has confirmed that Mesa flights will be backfilled by other existing regional carriers and that “Air Wisconsin is preparing to join the American Eagle family earlier than planned.”
There are conflicting reports as to why the arrangement with American Airlines has come to such an abrupt halt. According to Mesa, a pilot shortage and certain American Airways’ actions in relation that had created a major problem. Mesa Air Group Chief Executive Jonathan Ornstein said American “significantly raised regional pilot wages for their wholly owned subsidiaries to deter pilots from going to national carriers and attract pilots from the ever-shrinking pool of qualified pilot applicants.” But, Ornstein added in the Mesa memo, “American chose not to fund the higher pilot rates for their non-affiliated carriers. At the same time, we were being penalized for not producing the required block hours under our pre-COVID contract with American. These two actions were costing us approximately US$5 million in losses per month,” adding that “As a result, we have concerns about American’s ability to be a reliable partner going forward … We just do not believe it is in Mesa’s long-term interest to fund ongoing losses at American.”
American Airlines portrayed the decision differently in a memo, saying Mesa “has experienced various financial and operational difficulties this year. As a result, we have concerns about Mesa’s ability to be a reliable partner for American going forward.”
