Mesa Airlines will lease nine Bombardier CRJ900s, which were previously operated by Uruguay's Pluna, for operations at US Airways, market sources indicate.
A total of six aircraft will be leased from Canada's Scotiabank while two aircraft will be sourced from the Export Development Canada under operating lease contracts. The remaining aircraft is a 2006-vintage model that was previously operated by Andes Lineas Aereas.
The aircraft will enter the US Airways Express fleet between April and July and will operate under an eight-year capacity purchase agreement through 2021.
The aircraft will be reconfigured with nine first-class seats and 70 economy seats - for a total of 79 seats - during the third quarter.
US Airways will remove nine 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145s flown by Republic Airways-subsidiary Chautauqua Airlines from its regional fleet during the same period.
Mesa flies 38 79-seat CRJ900s for US Airways under an existing agreement that expires in 2015.
Source: Commercial Aviation Online
