US's Mesa Airlines eyes 2022 debut for EU subsidiary

Mesa Air Group is planning to launch its European Union-based subsidiary, a joint venture with UK-based Gramercy Associates, in 2022 and not by the end of 2021 as previously announced. "We continue to make progress on the project, and we are expecting to start operations in the calendar year 2022. Due to EU regulations, Mesa will be a minority partner in the JV, but Mesa will be providing technical support and expertise to help with the startup," Senior VP (Finance) Torque Zubek said during the carrier's quarterly earnings call. President and CFO Michael Lotz clarified that the launch would most likely happen in Q1 2022. Although the airline previously said that the still-unnamed start-up would operate CRJ900s, it has yet to determine the source of the aircraft. "We are just really looking closely at the cost-benefit analysis of taking a Mesa Airlines aircraft, reconfiguring it to all coach, getting it certified versus just potentially leasing an aircraft that may already be over in Europe in that configuration... We’re still in the evaluation phases. So we’re not sure which way we’re going to go," Lotz said.<br/>