Mesaba also previously operated connecting flight services in association with Republic Airlines before this air carrier was subsequently merged into Northwest.

It had one airplane, a Piper Cub purchased for $1,300, and it was used to shuttle employees of the Blandin Paper Mill Company from Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Minneapolis.

Subsequently, they started regularly scheduled airline services serving Spencer, Iowa, Ely, Virginia, and Duluth.

[6] In 1991, Mesaba built two new hangar facilities, in Detroit and Wausau, Wisconsin, and added the first of 25 de Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprop aircraft, leased from Northwest Airlines.

[6] By 1997, Mesaba added additional flights to several new cities including Aspen, Colorado, Bozeman, Montana and Montreal in Canada.

Eventually, as Pinnacle transitioned to an Bombardier CRJ regional jet fleet, Mesaba took over Northwest Airlink Saab 340 turboprop operations.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Mesaba was forced to reduce its workforce by 400 employees to achieve cost savings.

[8] In the fall of 2003, Northwest wanted to retire the Avro jet fleet, which comprised about half of Mesaba's revenue.

Facing rising fuel costs, downsizing plans, and lack of income from Northwest, Mesaba filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on October 13, 2005.

[citation needed] On April 14, 2006, the company announced reductions of the Avro RJ85 fleet, at Northwest Airlines' direction.

By the end of October 2006, all three of the major unions representing the pilots,[11] flight attendants,[12] and mechanics[13] reached tentative agreements that still needed to be approved by the membership.

[14] With the merging of Northwest Airlines into Delta Air Lines, Mesaba underwent numerous changes as a subsidiary of the new company.

The DOT ruled that the actions by Mesaba personnel constituted an "unfair and deceptive practice" because they had agreed to deplane the passengers.

[15] Since the incident, the ramp personnel in Rochester along with other ground stations handled by Mesaba, Comair, and Compass, have since been merged and renamed Regional Elite Airline Services (REAS).

On July 1, 2010, Delta Air Lines sold Mesaba to Pinnacle Airlines Corporation for $62 million.

The award has been presented only four times since its creation in 1998 and recognizes clients that exhibit a strong commitment to building quality safety and loss prevention programs.

Mesaba began operating as US Airways Express on behalf of US Airways in March 2011, replacing Colgan Air service, with seven Saab 340 aircraft to eight destinations served from New York LaGuardia Airport: Charlottesville, VA; Manchester, NH; Ithaca, NY; Syracuse, NY; Providence, RI; and Washington Dulles, as well as Martha's Vineyard, MA and Nantucket, MA with both of these destinations being served on a seasonal basis.

Mesaba was a small independent commuter air carrier at this time in June 1981 operating Beechcraft 99 turboprop aircraft on just one linear route: Minneapolis/St.