Lacking passengers, regional airline Mesa Air to start flying DHL cargo

Airlines are increasingly turning to air cargo as many passengers opt to forgo flights because of the coronavirus pandemic. Mesa Air Group, a regional carrier that flies short routes for American and United on Monday said it will start flying packages for Deutsche Post’s DHL Express. Mesa said that it has a five-year agreement to fly for the package delivery company and that service will start in October. The regional airline is planning to add Boeing 737 freighters, leased from DHL, and fly them from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Other carriers have taken similar steps as the pandemic continues to keep a lid on air travel demand, pushing passenger airlines to their first losses in years. Just more than 8m people passed through TSA checkpoints at US airports in the first 12 days of July, down nearly 73% from the same period a year ago, federal data shows. <br/>