In a surprise announcement today, Mesa Airlines has informed employees and the press about upcoming changes to their wet lease agreement with United Airlines. They will replace their 20 CRJ-700 jets over the course of 2020 with E175 LL one-by-one. The 20 CRJ regional jets will be used by another, undisclosed United Express carrier.
In addition to the jet replacement, Mesa Airlines has announced that their agreement with United on 45 existing Embraer jets has been extended for an additional 5 years until 2024 with an option to extend until 2027.
Overall, MESA will be the largest Embraer E Jet operator in Uniteds Express network, with a total of 80 Embraer 175. The average age of the fleed will be below 4 years.
Other than for United, MESA Airlines also has wet lease agreements for American Airlines, out of their Charlotte and Phoenix hubs. These wet lease agreements also have been renewed yesterday, with a slight decrease in capacity, removing 2 jets from their agreement after not meeting American’s newest performance metrics.
