Mesa Appoints VP East Coast Operations

PHOENIX, Jan. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Mesa Air Group Inc. , today announced the appointment of Jorn Bates as Vice President East Coast Operations, effective January 13.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990210/LAW065)

Jorn has served for the past 15 years at Delta Air Lines, most recently as the General Manager of Operations and Performance for Delta Connection where he oversaw six regional airlines operating 480 aircraft carrying over 33 million passengers annually. Jorn also held numerous positions within the Technical Operations department including the Operational Control Center, Reliability and Engineering, and was the Fleet Reliability Coordinator for the B-727 and B-737 fleet of aircraft.

Jorn started his aviation career as an electrician in the United States Marine Corps working on the Grumman A-6E, EA-6A and EA-6B attack aircraft. His six year military career ended just after the completion of Operation Desert Storm. Jorn has an MBA from Shorter college and an undergraduate degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

Mesa Air Group Chairman and CEO, Jonathan Ornstein said, “Jorn’s extensive background at Delta will greatly benefit our ongoing emphasis on operational excellence as we continue to grow our business.” Ornstein added, “We are delighted to welcome Jorn to the organization and I feel certain he’ll make a significant contribution to Mesa and our management team.”

Mesa currently operates 199 aircraft with over 1,300 daily system departures to 173 cities, 43 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and Mexico. Mesa operates as US Airways Express, Delta Connection, and United Express under contractual agreement with US Airways, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, respectively, and independently as Mesa Airlines and go! On June 9, 2006, Mesa launched inter-island Hawaiian service as go! (http://www.iflygo.com/). This new 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 generates revenue in excess of $1 billion annually. Mesa is a member of the Regional Airline Association and Regional Aviation Partners. The Company was named 2005 Regional Airline of the Year by Air Transport World Magazine.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990210/LAW065AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Mesa Air Group Inc.

CONTACT: Paul Skellon, VP Corporate Communications of Mesa Air Group,+1-602-685-4162, paul.skellon@mesa-air.com

Web site: http://www.iflygo.com/