A new board of directors at Mesa Air Group is flexing its muscles in a bid to respond to challenges facing the carrier.
The airline's new board includes Virgin Express chief executive officer Jonathan Ornstein and Virgin Express director, James Swigart. Larry Risley and his wife, both co-founders of the group, are to resign from the board.
Amid all the turmoil that Mesa has seen this year, perhaps the most devastating change facing the board is the decision by United Airlines to terminate its codeshare deal with subsidiary Mesa Airlines from 22 April. The move follows earlier decisions to terminate similar agreements with Mesa subsidiary WestAir in California and the Pacific northwest. Mesa operates as United Express on these routes, which provide half of Mesa's revenues and are its most profitable operations.
Mesa's chief financial officer, Stephen Jackson, admits that losing the codeshare is 'bad news' for Mesa, but says that the board's first priority will be to deal with the Denver situation, pointing out that it is still possible to profit from selling the 80 aircraft involved in the United Express business. The 21 Jetstream 31s and 19 Embraer Brasilias are being traded in for Canadair Regional Jets, while Mesa is to sell 40 Beech 1900Ds.
United had offered to renew the Denver codeshare, in two six-month periods, if Mesa reinstated four routes it dropped last year to Cody in Wyoming and Amarillo, Lubbock and Midland in Texas. 'We're still negotiating,' says Mesa. The California and Pacific northwest contracts have since been given to SkyWest, but no Denver replacement has yet been named.
Karen Walker
Source: Airline Business
