Mesa Air Group, Inc. Reports October Traffic Including go! Hawai'i's Low Fare Airline

PHOENIX, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mesa Air Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: MESA) reported its preliminary traffic figures for October 2008. Year-over-year available seat miles decreased 16.63% in October 2008 to 604,615,000 compared to 725,259,000 in October 2007. Revenue passenger miles decreased 12.03% from 541,149,000 in 2007 to 476,034,000 in 2008. Passenger enplanements decreased 11.30% from 1,282,516 in October 2007 to 1,137,571 in October 2008. Year-over-year load factor for the month of October was 78.73% in 2008 compared to 74.61% in 2007. Mesa's on-time performance for October was 82.1%.

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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.