Mesa Air Group, Inc.

Founded by Larry Risley in 1982, Mesa Air Shuttle began scheduled service between Farmington, NM and Albuquerque, NM using a nine passenger Piper Chieftan aircraft. Mr. Risley, an aircraft mechanic by trade, mortgaged his house and Fixed Base Operation business to start the airline.  It was the beginning of what would grow to be one of the world’s largest independent regional airlines.

In its first ten years of business, Mesa grew from a Company with one aircraft serving two cities to an organization operating 38 aircraft serving 63 cities. During this same  period, the Company transformed itself from a small closely held corporation to a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol “MESA”. In 1989, the company expanded its operation through a codeshare agreement with Midwest Express serving an extensive network of cities out of Milwaukee. This pattern of growth continued with the acquisition of Aspen Airways in 1990. With the Aspen acquisition, Mesa gained a codeshare agreement with United Airlines, operating as United Express out of Denver.

Acquisitions continued with the purchase of Air Midwest in 1991 adding US Airways as a codeshare partner, and West Air in 1992 adding additional United Express flying in California and the Pacific Northwest. In addition, Mesa expanded further with the creation of the Florida Gulf division operating under a codesharing agreement with US Airways out of Tampa, FL in 1991, and added an America West codesharing agreement in 1992. Two years later, Pittsburgh-based Crown Airways was acquired, further strengthening Mesa’s ties to US Airways.  By 1995, approximately 95% of Mesa’s flying was derived from operations associated with codesharing agreements with United Airlines, USAir and America West Airlines. The early 1990s clearly were years of tremendous growth and change for Mesa.

In 1997, Mesa suffered a setback as its code share agreement with United was not renewed and independent jet flying in Texas was proving to be unprofitable.  In early 1998, Mesa recruited Jonathan Ornstein to return to the company as President and CEO.  Jonathan had held various positions at Mesa during 1987 to 1994.  From 1994 to 1998, Mr. Ornstein was CEO of Continental Express and President and CEO of Virgin Express, a low fare airline based in Brussels.

In 1998, the new management team moved quickly to restore and expand Mesa’s codeshare relationships as its foundation for renewed growth and profitability.  Mesa renegotiated a new codeshare agreement with America West, relocated its corporate headquarters from Farmington to Phoenix and expanded the outside representation on the company’s board of directors. By the end of 1998, the company was operating 24 CRJ 200 aircraft, 12 Dash 8 aircraft and 79 Beech1900 D aircraft.

Having returned to profitability, Mesa focused on continued growth opportunities. In 1999 Mesa announced the acquisition of Charlotte-based CCAir, adding additional US Airways routes. In addition, Mesa secured more regional jet flying with US Airways expanding the fleet from 12 to 28 regional jets. 1999 also saw the growth of Mesa’s CRJ fleet with the addition of 13 CRJ 200s bringing the fleet total to 32.  The company also concluded negotiations with Embraer to add 36 ERJ 145 aircraft to the company’s fleet.

By 2000, Mesa was moving forward on virtually every front and it was evident to everyone that great things were happening. The America West codeshare agreement was expanded from 17 to 22 regional jets and by now, 75% of Mesa’s flying was being conducted under revenue guarantee contracts. Mesa also reduced unprofitable operations, including the removal of 17 19-seat turboprop aircraft from its fleet. In 2001, Mesa announced an agreement with America West to add up to 40 larger CRJ 700 and 900 aircraft and became the launch customer for the new 86-seat Bombardier CRJ 900.

The devastating events of 9/11 created a crisis in the aviation business.  Mesa moved quickly to reduce costs, eliminate unprofitable turboprop flying and work with its codeshare partners to restore profitability.  The following years produced an unprecedented number of airline bankruptcies and restructurings.  Thanks to the dedication and hard work of its employees, Mesa has been profitable in every quarter since December, 2001 – a remarkable achievement in the industry.

Mesa’s continued success did not go unnoticed.  Capping off a successful 2005, Mesa Air Group was named the Air Transport World’s Regional Airline of the Year.  The year also marked a milestone for Mesa as it topped $1billion in revenue and moved from “regional” to “national” carrier as measured by the US Department of Transportation.

Mesa’s mission is to be the premier high quality, low cost regional airline.  We also look to innovate and pursue new opportunities in the rapidly changing airline industry. The drive and determination which form the foundation of the company is readily apparent today in the recently announced codeshare agreement with Delta Air Lines, further expansion of the United codeshare agreement and the launch of go!, Mesa’s independent operation that will provide intra-island service in Hawaii. go! will fly state of the art 50-seat regional jets to provide a high quality, high frequency service, connecting the islands of Hawaii with service to the Hilo, Honolulu, Kona, Lihue and Maui (Kahului).

Mesa currently operates 113 aircraft with over 650 daily system departures to 120 cities, 39 states, Canada and Mexico. Mesa operates as Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express under contractual agreements with Delta Air Lines, US Airways and United Airlines, respectively. In June 2006 Mesa launched inter-island Hawaii service as go! and in October 2009 formed a joint-venture with Mokulele Airlines. The go! Mokulele operation links Honolulu to the neighbor island airports of Hilo, Kona, Kahului, Ho’olehua, Lana’i and Lihu’e. The Company, founded by Larry and Janie Risley in New Mexico in 1982, has approximately 3,500 employees.

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