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.
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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.
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. They 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). go! will start service June 9, 2006.
Mesa currently operates 180 aircraft with over 800 daily system departures to 124 cities, 38 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Mexico. Mesa operates as US Airways Express, Delta Connection, and United Express under contractual agreement with US Airways, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, respectively, and independently as Mesa Airlines and go!.
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