T/R DISAGREE

This makes me sick. I hope DAL and UAL pull their contract and they can finally close up shop.

ATW Daily News

Mesa negotiates hurdles, returns to profit
Tuesday July 1, 2008
A fiscal second quarter during which it faced a legal challenge from Hawaiian Airlines, moved forward on the closure of its Air Midwest operation and received notification that Delta Air Lines would terminate its capacity purchase agreement still ended positively for Mesa Air Group, which reported a $9.4 million profit compared to a $24 million loss suffered in the three months ended March 31, 2007.

"During the quarter we resolved a number of important issues," Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said. "However, there remain many significant challenges to overcome both here at Mesa and with the industry."

MAG currently operates 181 aircraft independently as Mesa Airlines and go! and as a regional lift provider to DL, US Airways and United Airlines. In late March, DL notified Mesa and that it would end its contract with MAG subsidiary Freedom Airlines, which operates 34 ERJ-145s for Delta Connection. In May, MAG won a preliminary injunction against DL (ATWOnline, May 30). Regarding Air Midwest, it said it has solicited bids for the sale of its 20 Beech 1900Ds and expected to be out of all Essential Air Service markets it served by yesterday (ATWOnline, May 15).

Revenue in the three months ended March 31 rose 8.1% year-over-year to $320.3 million against an 8.5% fall in expenses to $292.7 million. Consequently, operating result swung to a $27.7 million profit from a $23.5 million loss in the year-ago period.

The company flew 1.43 billion RPMs during the quarter, down 13.7% year-over-year. Capacity fell 10.4% to 1.98 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 2.8 points to 72%. MAG's fleet numbered 178 aircraft on March 31 compared to 201 the year before. Second-quarter yield soared 22.2% to 22 cents while unit revenue climbed 23.1% to 16 cents. CASM was up 7.1% to 15 cents.

In the fiscal semester, MAG posted a $5.2 million profit, reversed from a $16 million loss the prior corresponding period. Operating result swung to a $27.8 million profit from a $3.7 million deficit.


by Brian Straus

__________________
Lionel Hutz: Now, Apu, Mrs. Simpson claims that she *forgot* that bottle of... delicious... bourbon. Brownest of the brown liquors... so tempting.
[holds the bottle to his ear]
Lionel Hutz: [whispering] What's that? You want me to drink you? But I'm in the middle of a trial!

TheBills

Well they operate very lean, there pilots dont make any money, there flight attendants practically work for free, they MEL constantly to avoid major cash drains, and they operate at something like 3-5 pilots per plane, no profit sharing, crap 401K, 1.28 per diem. I dont know they operate different than any other airline...JO operates cheap and thats why they might stick...but Delta wont keep them so in time they will be gone. It would be like us with 15% concessions and no branded and 2000 pilots, we would turn a profit then (not saying thats what it should be by any means just).

goxc

Well sounds like they won the battle, but they'll lose the war if the court lets DAL pull that contract.