"Paul brings to Mesa a wealth of operational and leadership experience from his years as CEO of Mesaba Holdings, the parent company of Mesaba Airlines," said Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa Air Group Chairman and CEO. "I have known Paul for many years and am confident he is the ideal person to bring the needed skills, leadership and oversight to our operations at a time when Mike Lotz must remain focused on the restructuring of our business," added Ornstein.

Since September 1999, Paul was President and Chief Executive Officer of MAIR Holdings Inc., a member of its Board of Directors and on the Executive and Safety Committees. From September 1999 until October 2002 Paul also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mesaba Aviation.

Paul was previously employed as Vice President Operations at Atlas Air, a global cargo operator of 747 aircraft. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President Operations at LSG/Sky Chefs. He also served as President of Continental Airlines' Chelsea Catering Corporation.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the Edwin L. Cox Graduate School of Business at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

Mesa currently operates 159 aircraft with over 800 daily system departures to 126 cities, 38 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, the Bahamas and Mexico. Mesa operates as Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express under contractual agreements with Delta Air Lines, US Airways and United Airlines, respectively, and independently as Mesa Airlines and go!. In June 2006 Mesa launched inter-island Hawaiian service as go! This operation links Honolulu to the neighbor island airports of Hilo, Kahului, Kona and Lihue. The Company, founded by Larry and Janie Risley in New Mexico in 1982, has approximately 5,000 employees and was awarded Regional Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine in 1992 and 2005. Mesa is a member of the Regional Airline Association and Regional Aviation Partners.

SOURCE Mesa Air Group, Inc.

http://www.mesa-air.com/

"This contract represents a new beginning for our pilots and our company," said Captain Kevin Wilson, chairman of the ALPA unit at Mesa. "To be a successful, viable company in today's challenging marketplace, we recognized that we must put aside our differences and develop real-world solutions benefiting both the pilots and the company. We are pleased with management's willingness to engage with us in earnest discussions throughout the negotiations process, and we hope that this spirit of cooperation continues so that we can focus on building a better airline together."

The Mesa pilots' contract became amendable in September 2007. Facing an industry in crisis due to a slowing economy and skyrocketing fuel prices, company management and the pilot leadership decided to commence an expedited negotiation process. This unconventional bargaining method resulted in a short-term agreement with scheduling and quality of life improvements, including more days off, a true definition of scheduled or actual, and implementation of a Preferential Bidding System (PBS) that will allow the pilots to have more control over their schedules.

The pilot leadership and the Negotiating Committee will soon begin a series of "roadshows" to inform the pilot group of the contents of the tentative Agreement and address any pilot questions. It's then up to the rank-and-file pilots to vote on whether or not this TA becomes the next collective bargaining agreement. The vote is expected to open in mid-November. Results of the pilot vote are expected to be announced in late November.

Mesa currently operates 159 aircraft with over 800 daily system departures to 126 cities, 38 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, the Bahamas and Mexico. Mesa operates as Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express under contractual agreements with Delta Air Lines, US Airways and United Airlines, respectively, and independently as Mesa Airlines and go!. In June 2006 Mesa launched inter-island Hawaiian service as go! This operation links Honolulu to the neighbor island airports of Hilo, Kahului, Kona and Lihue. The Company, founded by Larry and Janie Risley in New Mexico in 1982, has approximately 4,100 employees and was awarded Regional Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine in 1992 and 2005. Mesa is a member of the Regional Airline Association and Regional Aviation Partners.

ALPA is the bargaining agent for the nearly 1,200 pilots at Mesa Air Group, which includes Mesa and Freedom Airlines. ALPA represents 53,000 pilots at 37 airlines in the U.S. and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.

SOURCE Mesa Air Group and Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l

http://www.alpa.org

go!'s preliminary traffic figures for October 2008 indicate that its operations generated 13.3 million available seat miles, 9.4 million revenue passenger miles and 63,482 passengers, compared with 53,559 in October 2007. Load factor for October 2008 was 70.75%, compared to 67.23% for the same period in 2007. Hawai'i's low fare airline recorded an on-time performance rate of 82%.

    October Results                   Oct-08       Oct-07       Change
    Revenue Passenger Miles (000)     476,034      541,149      -12.03%
    Available Seat Miles (000)        604,615      725,259      -16.63%
    Passengers Carried                1,137,571    1,282,516    -11.30%
    Load Factor                       78.73%       74.61%        4.1 pts

    Year-to-date Results              YTD 08       YTD 07       Change
    Revenue Passenger Miles (000)     4,958,360    5,780,521    -14.22%
    Available Seat Miles (000)        6,555,252    7,555,787    -13.24%
    Passengers Carried                11,078,446   13,682,231   -19.03%
    Load Factor                       75.64%       76.50%       (0.9) pts

"While capacity cuts by our partner airlines have resulted in reductions in our mainland flying, our Hawai'i operations continued to perform well in spite of a significant reduction in visitor numbers to the islands," said Mesa Air Group Chairman and CEO, Jonathan Ornstein. Adding, "We are also encouraged by the lower fuel prices which bode well for the future. I would like once more to thank our employees for their superb effort and continued support."

Mesa currently operates 152 aircraft with over 800 daily system departures to 126 cities, 38 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Mexico. Mesa operates as Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express under contractual agreements with Delta Air Lines, US Airways and United Airlines, respectively, and independently as Mesa Airlines and go!. In June 2006 Mesa launched inter-island Hawaiian service as go! This operation links Honolulu to the neighbor island airports of Hilo, Kahului, Kona and Lihue. The Company, founded by Larry and Janie Risley in New Mexico in 1982, has approximately 4200 employees and was awarded Regional Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine in 1992 and 2005. Mesa is a member of the Regional Airline Association and Regional Aviation Partners.

Web site: http://www.mesa-air.com

SOURCE Mesa Air Group, Inc.

http://www.mesa-air.com