| |||||||
Founded | 2002 | ||||||
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Ceased operations | 2010 | ||||||
Hubs | Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport | ||||||
Frequent-flyer program | SkyMiles | ||||||
Alliance | SkyTeam | ||||||
Fleet size | 34 | ||||||
Destinations | 24 | ||||||
Parent company | Delta Air Lines and Mesa Air Group, Inc. | ||||||
Headquarters | Irving, Texas, USA | ||||||
Key people | Ryan Gumm (COO) | ||||||
Website | http://www.mesa-air.com |
Freedom Airlines, Inc. was an American FAA Part 121 certificated air carrier operating under air carrier certificate number FDKA087K [1] issued on April 1, 2002. A Nevada corporation, [2] it was headquartered in Irving, Texas and a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group. [3] It operated flights as Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines serving Delta's hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, KY, near Cincinnati, OH using EMB 145 aircraft. Freedom's base moved to Cincinnati from New York City in July 2009. Freedom previously operated the CRJ-900 aircraft for Delta Connection as well; however, this contract was canceled and all aircraft were transferred to Eagan, MN-based Mesaba Airlines, Atlanta, GA-based Atlantic Southeast Airlines, and Memphis, TN-based Pinnacle Airlines.
A unrelated commuter airline using the name Freedom Airlines operating independently during the 1980s flying scheduled passenger service with Convair 580 and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner turboprops. This earlier version of Freedom Airlines served the eastern U.S. including destinations in Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia including Washington D.C. [4] [5]
The airline was established in March 2002 and started operations in October 2002. It was the launch customer for the Bombardier CRJ-900. The airline was started so that Mesa Air Group could fulfill its contractual obligations to operate the CRJ-900 as America West Express for America West Airlines. Establishing Freedom was necessary as Mesa Airlines was also operating as US Airways Express under a code share agreement for US Airways. US Airways' collective bargaining agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association prohibited contract carrier code share arrangements with regional jet carriers, if that carrier operated aircraft with more than 70 seats. Mesa Airlines, therefore, could not operate as US Airways Express and operate the CRJ-900.
Initially Freedom operated the Bombardier CRJ-700 and CRJ-900 on behalf of America West Airlines. Once US Airways' pilot scope limitation was relaxed, Mesa transferred the operation of all of Freedom's regional jets to Mesa Airlines. Once this transfer was complete Freedom placed 1 Beech 1900D turboprop on its certificate in order to keep the certificate active. No scheduled flights occurred during this period with the Beech 1900, but it was used as a spare aircraft for Air Midwest aircraft flying out of Phoenix under an America West Express codeshare as well as a spare aircraft for Mesa Airlines' Dash-8-200 aircraft operating under a contract for America West. In October 2005, Freedom Airlines began operations as Delta Connection.
On April 7, 2008, Mesa Air Group, the parent company of Freedom Airlines, entered litigation about contractual obligations with Delta Air Lines. [6] Delta attempted to terminate the ERJ-145 contract due to supposed failures to meet completion in 3 of the last 6 months. On May 29, 2008, a federal judge blocked Delta from terminating Freedom's regional flying contract which, according to parent company Mesa Air Group would have forced it to file for bankruptcy protection by July 20 and cut 700 jobs or 14 percent of its work force. [7] Since then, the ERJ-145 fleet has been reduced to 22 operating aircraft along with 5 spares.
In August 2008, Mesa announced that Delta was terminating Freedom's contract to operate CRJ-900 aircraft. As with the ERJ-145 contract, Mesa alleged that the cancellation was driven by Delta's intention to cut capacity rather than Freedom's failure to meet operational performance standards, as Delta claims. [8] However, unlike the ERJ-145 contract, Delta's attempt to cancel the contract was successful. The seven CRJ-900s were returned to Delta with no further financial obligation to Mesa. They were being operated by Pinnacle Airlines until they received the last of their CRJ-900s orders. After that, 5 were operated by Mesaba Airlines. The other 2 were operated by Atlanta-based Atlantic Southeast Airlines. [9]
In May 2010, a federal judge ruled against regional carrier Mesa Air Group in the long-running dispute with Delta Air Lines over the larger carrier's right to cancel a regional jet service contract. [10] Mesa said in a statement that it may now have to lay off 500 workers at its Freedom Airlines subsidiary because 22 of its regional jets will be without work. On August 31, 2010, the last flight for Freedom Airlines operated. [11]
The Freedom Airlines fleet at the time it ceased operations consisted of the following aircraft:
Aircraft | In fleet | Passengers |
---|---|---|
Embraer ERJ-145 | 34 | 50 |
Aircraft | Year Retired | Replacement | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
de Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 | 2007 | Embraer ERJ-145 | Acquired in 2006 for Delta Connection flights at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK.) |
Bombardier CRJ900 | 2008 | n/a | Leased monthly from Delta for $1.00 per aircraft per month [12] |
Endeavor Air is an American regional airline headquartered at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The airline is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines and staffs, operates and maintains aircraft used on Delta Connection flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by Delta Air Lines.
Mesaba Aviation, Inc. was a regional airline in the United States that operated from 1944 until 2012, when it merged with Pinnacle Airlines to form Endeavor Air. It was based in Eagan, Minnesota From 2010 to 2012 the airline was a wholly owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp. with code sharing flights operated as Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines and US Airways Express for US Airways. Previously, the airline operated code sharing service as Northwest Airlink and Northwest Jetlink on behalf of Northwest Airlines which subsequently merged with Delta. Mesaba also previously operated connecting flight services in association with Republic Airlines before this air carrier was subsequently merged into Northwest. Mesaba Airlines effectively ceased operations on January 4, 2012, when all aircraft and personnel were transitioned to the Pinnacle Airlines operating certificate. Mesaba's operating certificate was surrendered on July 31, 2012.
America West Express was the brand name for America West Airlines commuter and regional flights operated by Mesa Air Group's Mesa Airlines under a code share agreement. Today Mesa Airlines operates for American Eagle.
Mesa Airlines, Inc., is an American regional airline based in Phoenix, Arizona. It is an FAA Part 121–certificated air carrier operating under air carrier certificate number MASA036A issued on June 29, 1979. It is a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group and operates flights as United Express via respective code sharing agreements with United Airlines. It serves more than 180 markets in the Western Hemisphere. In a 1997 article from the Journal of Air Transportation, Mesa's safety record was noted as having the fewest incidents among domestic regional airlines at that time. Mesa filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2010, hoping to shed financial obligations for leases on airplanes it no longer needed and emerged from bankruptcy in March 2011. In November 2017, Mesa opened a new training center in Phoenix. The 23,000-square-foot facility features a full-size CRJ-200 cabin trainer aircraft, 14 classrooms, and has the capacity to train 300 crew members at one time.
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Mesa Air Group, Inc. is a Nevada Corporation commercial aviation holding company with headquarters in Suite 700 at 410 North 44th Street in the Camelback East area of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The company operates one regional airline subsidiary: Mesa Airlines which operates as United Express and as American Eagle under contractual agreements with United Airlines and American Airlines respectively.
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ExpressJet Airlines was a regional airline in the United States that operated from 1987 until 2022. It was headquartered in College Park, Georgia. The company began as Britt Airways and flew exclusively as Continental Express, the contracted codeshare partner for Continental Airlines. The name was changed to ExpressJet at the beginning of 1995 as the company began acquiring Regional jets, replacing its fleet of turboprop aircraft. Along with flying as Continental Express, ExpressJet expanded flying under the Delta Connection brand from 2007 through 2008 and again from 2012 through 2018. Service as American Eagle was flown between 2012 and 2019 and service under the United Express brand began in 2009. ExpressJet also flew an independent operation under their own brand in 2007 through 2008. When Continental Airlines merged into United Airlines in 2012, the Continental Express operations were added to the United Express service. In September 2020, it exited the fee-for-departure airline market and temporarily ceased flights after the conclusion of its contract with its sole remaining mainline partner, United Airlines. In September 2021, ExpressJet resumed operations as both an air charter provider and a regional airline under its own brand aha!—short for "Air-Hotel-Adventure." The brand's route structure focused on the West Coast of the United States with a hub at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, and scheduled flights began on October 24, 2021. The airline, including its brand aha!, filed for bankruptcy on August 23, 2022, having ceased all operations the previous day. In July 2023, the airline announced plans to relaunch as an air charter service using a single leased Boeing 777.
GoJet Airlines LLC is a regional airline headquartered in Bridgeton, Missouri, United States. Wholly owned by Trans States Holdings, it has 1,670 employees. It operates commuter feeder services under the United Express brand of United Airlines. United Express flights are currently operated out of United's hubs at Chicago–O'Hare, Newark and Washington-Dulles. GoJet's Delta Connection branded flights came to an end on March 31, 2020. Most of the flying at the end of the agreement was out of Detroit and Minneapolis–St. Paul as well as Raleigh-Durham. GoJet Airlines' system operations center (SOC), training center and corporate offices are co-located in the former Trans World Airlines and Ozark Airlines training center in Bridgeton, Missouri. The airline uses the former McDonnell Douglas factory hangar at Saint Louis Lambert International Airport as its primary maintenance facility, with maintenance staff available at all of the airline's destinations. Its call sign, "Lindbergh", is named for aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, who flew the Spirit of St. Louis solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927: the first person to do so.
Martha's Vineyard Airport is a public airport located in the middle of the island of Martha's Vineyard, three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Vineyard Haven, in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. This airport is owned by Dukes County and lies on the border between the towns of West Tisbury and Edgartown.
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Compass Airlines, LLC, was a regional airline in the United States that operated from 2006 to 2020, when it shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was headquartered in Delta Air Lines Building C at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport in Fort Snelling, Hennepin County, Minnesota; prior to December 16, 2009, it was headquartered in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, east of the Chantilly CDP. The airline launched inaugural service with a single Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft under the Northwest Airlink brand between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Washington, D.C., on May 2, 2007. On August 21, 2007, it began flying two Embraer E175 76-passenger aircraft, and expanded to 36 aircraft by December 2008.
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