Arizona’s Mesa Airlines ends CRJ700 operations

Mesa Airlines (YV, Phoenix Sky Harbor) has concluded CRJ700 Srs 701ER operations on behalf of United Airlines and will proceed to lease all 20 aircraft of the type to GoJet Airlines (G7, St. Louis Lambert Int’l) for a revised period of nine, rather than seven, years. The carrier said in its quarterly results for the period ended December 31, 2020, that all eight of the remaining CRJ700s at that time would be retired by the end of March 2021. The last flight of the type was operated from Portland Int’l Jetport to Washington Dulles on February 9, 2021, by N508MJ (msn 10087), Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. Mesa subsequently ferried the aircraft to Tucson Int’l, where it joined sixteen previously retired units of the type. Another two are currently stored at St. Louis Lambert Int’l and one at Washington Dulles airport, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. Under the terms of the agreement announced in December 2019 and thus predating the COVID-19 pandemic, Mesa Airlines has been replacing the CRJ700s on a parity basis with ERJ 170-200LLs. However, due to current reduced demand, it has partially accelerated the phase-out of the CRJ700s and retired them even though four of the twenty E175s remain to be delivered in the second quarter of 2021. “[The CRJ700s] will be leased to GoJet Airlines for a nine-year term that was previously announced as a seven-year term. We are retraining most of the current CRJ700 pilots in Washington Dulles on the E175,” Chief Operating Officer Brad Rich said during an earnings call. Mesa Airlines owns all twenty CRJ700s. The aircraft are 17.1 years old on average. Following the completion of the deliveries of the twenty E175LLs, Mesa Airlines will operate a total of eighty E175s for United, including sixty ERJ 170-200LRs. The airline also operates fifty-four CRJ900s for American Airlines and two B737-400(F)s under a contract with DHL Express. In a separate announcement following its quarterly earnings, the carrier said it would lease a third B737-400(F) for operations on behalf of DHL, with delivery set for May 2021. Mesa Airlines did not disclose its identity or lessor. Its first two B737-400(F)s are leased from Vx Capital Partners, the ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows.