Why doesn’t DL or AA buy mesa
 

$22 million market cap.

Buy a controlling stake, chapter 7, united takes a hit

They’d be doing United a huge favor actually.

Mesa’s operational performance is so atrocious United is currently taking a bigger hit. SK is currently hiding behind his terrible decision to keep that venture afloat by pumping more cash into it. SK has egg all over his face on that one and both DL and AA love the idea of Mesa operating under the United brand.

This. I don't know how large the stake in Mesa was that they bought, but it was significant.

The company has 566 million in debt, so even with a zero market cap, the value is highly negative. Best bet is to hold off and buy any desired assets during bankruptcy.

That makes sense. And pilots would get hired elsewhere, in a heartbeat (assuming not too many skeletons in their closets).

I’m suggesting dl/aa buy it solely to kill it.
That’s the only point - remove capacity from United.

It would initially, in the short term…

Looking back to when C5 got 145s on their certificate, XJT was then redundant flying 145s and in financial distress. It shuttered, the jets went to C5, along with pilots to UAL, C5, and others airlines.

However, the new variable is C5 is getting warmed up with the 175 at this time. So now, MESA can’t fly their 175s, or flying their old CRJs to save cash, and/or scope limits apply. C5 reliability is not awesome with old 145s and the premium cabin does not exist.

I foresee UAL floating MESA losses until C5 can take on considerable 175 ops, increase capacity 50% (and premium cabin revenue) each 145 for 175 swap while staying in scope limits. Make C5 a large pseudo WO Subsidiary UAX 175 operation. Pref hire MESA to mainline and or C5 to support more UAL NB flying as deliveries ramp up.

Now only have one dedicated regional, C5 flying the 175, and truly eliminate the 50 seater. Finish the MESA losses and ramp up both UA and UAX ops on a Timeline acceptable to UAL needs.

SK has said for years he hates the 50 seaters. Passengers hate them, and they (the 145 airframe) are losing money in ops, not just MESA.

SO, After the dust settles, if MESA truly does shut down, I only see that in a way that benefits capacity and hopefully the working group at Mesa. Hopefully better than it did for a lot of XJTers.

Regardless of who or what kills MESA, it will likely be a welcome reprieve for the Accounting folks at UAL…

”one dedicated regional”. You must have missed the news SkyWest just ordered 19 new E175’s for UA on long term contracts…..

I do see Mesa a all Amazon airline by 2025. And they will have the lifers to staff maybe 10 AC.

"One dedicated regional"...

*cough*... gojet...

I missed that memo 😑

I see where the original post is coming from though, with market cap down to 18M today it would be relatively easy to shutter it and immediately (and unexpectedly right before Thanksgiving and Christmas). However, the others are right that United is dumping tens of millions of dollars into this venture (at least 100M this year alone) and it may be better to let them deal with it than to try to take about 80 airplanes off their capacity.

Additionally, whoever does it is gunna have a bunch of bad PR and everyone will be pointing fingers. This could be a situation where the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

American and Delta both paired up with Mesa at one point, and swore Mesa off as a result. They know UAL "has their hands full" with Mesa at the moment. Mesa is probably doing more financial harm to United by hanging around than going away, from a competitive standpoint.

Either United is expecting some kind of comeback Cinderella Story from Mesa, or United is keeping them afloat to use them as leverage against the other regionals down the road. Those are two of my guesses.

DAL's experiment was very short-lived, involved some Dash-8's (not Q400) in the Northeast.

Mesa won the bid, and then acquired planes out of a junkyard in Russia or someplace and tried to restore them to 121 standards. Problem was they didn't have TCAS or GPWS or something, and the mfg no longer made what they needed. After delays they finally started operations but the performance was so bad DL pulled the plug in very short order.

literally bought one Dash that was due to go on permanent static display at a museum or something

Why buy it when you can get it for pennies on the dollar in bankruptcy, and not be forced to do seniority list integrations.... everybody gets recycled as a new hire.

I was specifically referring to Freedom Airlines and the 145's for Delta. Did the 145's come out of Russia?