Saturday, July 6, 2024 Mesa Air Group , Inc. also known as Mesa or the Company, announced today that it will furlough 12 pilots and postpone the training of 41 pilot trainees, effective July 12, 2024. This decision is due to a significant decrease in attrition rates among Mesa’s active pilot workforce.
The Company estimates that these measures will result in a monthly reduction of approximately $750,000 in operating expenses. These actions are part of Mesa’s ongoing efforts to optimize its workforce and improve financial efficiency. “Over the last two years, attrition at Mesa often exceeded 25 pilots per month due to the pilot shortage created by the FAA’s implementation of the ‘1,500-hour rule’,” said Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa Chairman and CEO.
“As a result, we undertook significant efforts to increase our pilot hiring, including our Mesa Pilot Development (MPD) program. However, attrition has fallen more precipitously than expected at Mesa in the past few months, in part due to the slowdown or cessation of hiring across most airlines. In addition, we believe the industry-wide pipeline will continue to improve as pilots previously denied the opportunity to fly commercially due to the lack of 1,500 hours finally achieve requisite flight time.
“While we deeply regret these actions, we expect reduced attrition and a more stable pilot force will enable us to increase our Embraer-175 block hours with United,” continued Ornstein. “Based on our current outlook, .