Mesa Air Group, Inc. is a Nevada Corporation[2] commercial aviation holding company with headquarters at 410 North 44th Street, Suite 700 in the Camelback East area of Phoenix, Arizona, United States.

As of June 2022, Mesa operated 167 aircraft, with more than 457 daily departures to 120 cities throughout the U.S., District of Columbia, Canada, Mexico, The Bahamas, and Cuba.

[4] Mesa began in 1980 when JB Aviation, a fixed-base operator at the Four Corners Regional Airport in Farmington, NM, established a charter flight department and Mesa Air Shuttle with scheduled commuter airline service from Farmington to Albuquerque using a five-seat single-engine Piper Saratoga aircraft.

In late 1981, the Denver flights were discontinued and a new route from Farmington to Grand Junction, CO, and Vernal, UT, was briefly added.

More Beech 99's were acquired and the company continued to expand from Albuquerque to other cities throughout New Mexico as well as Lubbock, TX.

As fare wars erupted between the carriers, Mesa was able to survive due to its low cost structure.

A second round of EAS bidding resulted in Mesa winning contracts to serve Silver City, Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Clovis, and Gallup.

By late 1985, Mesa acquired its first Beechcraft 1900 turboprop and began the first scheduled air service to Telluride, CO, as that aircraft had the performance to serve the city's airport which sits at more than 9000 feet above sea level.

The airline had built up its Albuquerque hub to 45 departures per day serving 17 cities and providing hourly service to Farmington.

While it was now operating to all the primary cities in New Mexico, it then expanded outside of the state by acquiring routes in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado from Centennial Airlines as well as adding nonstop flights from Roswell, NM, to DFW.

Mesa then acquired a pair of 9-seat Cessna Caravans to serve even smaller cities in New Mexico and established new routes from Albuquerque to Taos and Ruidoso.

[This quote needs a citation] In February 1989, Mesa negotiated its first codeshare agreement with Midwest Express and established Skyway Airlines in Milwaukee.

In July 1989, StatesWest Airlines failed to take over Mesa by making an offer to purchase all of its common operating stock.

Using these newly acquired routes, Mesa set up a Denver hub flying as United Express.

Aspen Airways' BAe 146 and Convair 580 aircraft and its Denver-Aspen route were sold to Air Wisconsin.

Mesa had many changes in 1991; acquiring Air Midwest, its Kansas City hub and a codeshare agreement with USAir Express in July, starting FloridaGulf Airlines serving Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana from its Tampa hub under a USAir Express codeshare in December.

In 1992, Mesa completed acquisition of WestAir Commuter Airlines and its hubs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle as well as its United codeshare.

Mesa created CalPac (California Pacific) with a Los Angeles hub operating as United Express.

Mesa created Desert Sun Airlines and operated the two jets from a Phoenix hub to Des Moines and Spokane as America West Express.

As Mesa acquired air carriers or expanded by creating new airlines, it grew in a seemingly haphazard manner.

Since the mergers had created a diverse mix of aircraft types, Mesa proceeded to simplify the number of aircraft types operated from six (Short 360, British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31, Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia, Beechcraft 1900, de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8, Fokker 70) to three (B1900, Dash 8, Canadair CRJ).

To replace the Fokker aircraft, Mesa signed an agreement with Bombardier to purchase 16 Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ) with options for 32 more.

When Mesa started taking deliveries of the CRJ in 1997, it returned to two Fokker 70 jets and placed the CRJs in service in Phoenix.

[8] Mesa and United entered into discussions in July 1997 to renew WestAir's codeshare agreement, which was due to expire in May 1998.

As negotiations delayed into the summer, United started awarding WestAir's routes to SkyWest Airlines.

From October 1997 to January 1998, Mesa parked aircraft and canceled flights to alleviate the crew shortage problem.

By 2002, CCAir ceased operations due to high costs and its assets and employees were absorbed into Mesa.

[10] In September 2007, the CFO of Mesa Air Group was placed on administrative suspension as irregularities were investigated during the Hawaiian Airlines case.

[19] In December 2011, it was announced Mesa Air Group had divested itself of Mokulele's Cessna Caravan aircraft and operations.