Two U.S. regional airlines—Republic Airways and Mesa Air Group—announced on Monday that they will merge to create one massive new regional airline.
Republic is one of the largest regional airlines in the U.S., operating more than 1,000 flights per day across 80 cities in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, and Central America. Phoenix-based Mesa is a smaller outfit, with more than 250 daily flights across 40 states, the District of Columbia, the Bahamas, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico.
Both regional carriers currently operate under long-term capacity purchase agreements for major US airlines. Republic Airways, which focuses on routes throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, operates feeder flights for Delta, United, and American Airlines, as Delta Connection, United Express, and American Eagle, respectively. Mesa contracts its flights to United and operates all of its flights as United Express. Both airlines will continue with these agreements post-merger.
The new combined airline will be called Republic Airways Holdings Inc., and it will operate more than 1,250 daily departures across both airlines’ current route networks with a fleet of 310 Embraer 170/175 aircraft, according to a release from both carriers. The larger, unified fleet “will enable more efficient and productive regional flying and crew resource management,” according to the airlines’ statement. In the release, the two companies touted the new merged airline as being “America’s regional airline of choice.”
“We're thrilled to combine the Republic and Mesa teams to create one of the world's leading Embraer Jet operators," Bryan Bedford, Republic's president and CEO, said in a statement. (Bedford is also the current nominee for FAA administrator in the Trump administration.) "Republic and Mesa share a common mission to connect communities across America, and we believe that we can better achieve that mission together. With this combination, we are establishing a single, well-capitalized, public company that will benefit from the deep expertise of Republic and Mesa associates, creating value for all stakeholders well into the future."
Both companies said they expect to keep all of their operational employees, including flight crews and technicians, on the new merged airline’s staff. That’s no small feat, as Republic employs more than 6,000 workers, and Mesa has 1,700 employees on staff.
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