Mesa Back in RAA

Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group has rejoined the Regional Airline Association (RAA) after a 12-year absence. Mesa’s admission increases the RAA’s airline membership rolls to 27 carriers operating half of all U.S. commercial flights.

The RAA last counted Mesa as a member in 2001, when the airline’s outspoken CEO, Jonathan Ornstein, announced plans to start a new lobbying organization called Regional Aviation Partners at that year’s RAA Convention. Calling the RAA’s former team of leaders “total political animals, more concerned with Washington cocktail parties than making a real difference,” Ornstein at the time criticized the RAA for its lack of effectiveness in winning support for air service to small communities and for what he perceived as the association’s apathy toward the plight of small, independently owned member airlines.