Regional carrier Mesa Air Group is suing Delta over its plan to end its contract-flying agreement with Mesa. The federal suit, filed Monday, would prevent Delta from ending its regional flying contract with Mesa, The Associated Press reports. "We're asking the court ... to require Delta to honor the contract as long as Mesa carries out its end of the bargain," Mesa General Counsel Brian Gillman says. That's apparently where the dispute comes in.
"Delta noted last week that Mesa's performance was lacking," AP writes. "Specifically," AP says Delta "criticized the number of ERJ-145 Delta Connection flights Mesa's subsidiary, Freedom Airlines, completed from September 2007 through February." Mesa, however, says that's not true, claiming that Delta asked Mesa to cut flights as part of its efforts to reduce domestic capacity. The Arizona Republic writes Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein "was stunned by Delta's decision and blamed the airline for the flight cancellations at JFK Airport in New York that he says put Freedom below the performance thresholds in its contract."
Mesa officials contend Delta is simply trying to find a way out of the contract, ccording to the Chicago Tribune (free registration). "Now that Delta wants out of the contract, it has contrived a new way of calculating completion rate that counts those cancellations against Mesa," Gillman tells AP. "This new interpretation is obviously unreasonable, because it would give Delta the ability to declare default whenever it wanted just by canceling enough of Freedom's flights," he says. Delta is sticking with its story, with spokeswoman Chris Kelly telling AP that "we will be canceling the contract because operational performance has fallen below minimum levels required under the contract."
Mesa, of course, is at the center of another controversy that involves its go! unit that flies within Hawaii. Mesa has been accused of corporate espionage and a predatory pricing scheme at go! that Aloha Airlines says ultimately helped drive it out of business last week. Mesa has already lost an $80 million settlement in a similar lawsuit filed by Hawaiian Airlines, and a case brought by Aloha is still pending. Mesa has denied wrongdoing and says it will appeal the decision in the Hawaiian case.