Mesa Air Group Inc. has announced plans to wind down its contract with American Airlines Group Inc. and expand its relationship with United Airlines Holdings Inc. . In a statement, Mesa said that the restructuring was driven primarily by higher pilot wages and block hour utilization penalties, which are the result an ongoing industry-wide pilot shortage. “Mesa initiated and has finalized a consensual wind down of its American operations,” it said, adding that it is finalizing a new-five-year agreement with United Airlines that would place the associated aircraft into United Express operations and compensate Mesa for the higher costs associated with regional jet flying. “The new agreement would cover all of Mesa’s existing flying at American and could increase to 38 CRJ-900 aircraft, dependent upon the number of E-175s that Mesa is operating,” the carrier explained, in its statement. Mesa’s operations with American will cease on April 3, 2023 and the carrier anticipates that it will begin to place aircraft with United in March 2023. Mesa’s stock rose 2.6% before market open on Monday, while American Airlines was up 0.8% and United rose 1%.
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