The US ACMI provider Mesa Airlines has signed an agreement with United Airlines that will result in the company flying largely exclusively for the Star Alliance member from next year. American Airlines had previously announced the termination.

The contract also stipulates that United Airlines will have a ten percent stake in Mesa. Financially, the regional carrier will initially be supported with 41,2 million US dollars. Furthermore, around 80 million US dollars are to be made available for additional engines. The Bombardier CRJ-900s currently in service with American Airlines will be flown for United Airlines in the future. The Embraer 175 aircraft, which are already being operated for UA, will remain in service.

For Mesa Airlines, the cooperation with the American competitor means that in the future it will fly more or less exclusively for United Airlines. This is also manifested with the equity participation. However, this also poses a risk, because if United should lose interest at some point and, like American Airlines, quit, you will hardly have any other customers. While it will continue to operate charter flights and ad hoc ACMI flights, its primary source of revenue will be United business.

In the course of the most recent conference call on the business figures for the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year, Mesa boss Jonathan Orstein explained, among other things, that the contract has a term of five years and initially includes 60 percent of the CRJ fleet, which was last used for American . However, there is a possibility that the volume can be increased later. In addition to existing crewing and maintenance centers in Phoenix, Dallas, El Paso and Louisville, Mesa also plans to add Denver and Houston, both key United hubs, to the list. The airline hopes to expand its presence in the western states with the new bases as it plans to add more regional cities soon.

The manager further said: "This is an important turnaround for the regional airline industry as we work to return to service neglected smaller and rural markets - three quarters of which have suffered service cuts over the past three years - by delivering more than 100 daily Add regional jet flights to the United network”.

Malta offshoot “Flite” will fly for Liliair from Klagenfurt

In the medium term, Mesa Airlines wants to expand and become more independent of business in the United States. In cooperation with a partner one is currently building on Malta the future ACMI carrier Flite. This is to go with Bombardier CRJ-900 at the start. From circles of the Maltese aviation authority it can be heard that AOC and operating license could be granted in the next few weeks. Officially, the authority does not want to comment on this process.

Flite was able to win the official launch customer in Austria. It is the future house brand of Klagenfurt Airport. The Maltese subsidiary of Mesa Airlines will initially operate two Bombardier CRJ-2023s on a charter basis under the Liliair brand from the summer flight schedule of 900. The Lilihill subsidiary is scheduled to start selling tickets in January 2023. First should Frankfurt am Main, Munich and Hamburg can be connected to Klagenfurt.

It is currently not known with which or how many other providers the Mesa subsidiary Flite was able to conclude further contracts. A startup in France that would like to fly with CRJ1000 but does not have an AOC itself is under discussion. However, there is no official confirmation of this. In general, Flite and the parent company Mesa Airlines are rather covered with regard to European activities.