Originally Posted by Santos Dumont

There is one rumor (as in: not a fact, and likely far from the truth) saying that when United was looking for a home for some of the E-175 originally destined for Republic, SkyWest told United that they would not only take those airplanes, but also finance them if United also transferred to them all of Mesa's E-175s. Back then Mesa was only operating 30 E-175s, all owned by United. Supposedly, that is the reason Mesa had to scramble to finance the additional airframes in spite of allegedly being "broke."

I believe that is what 20sx was referring to.