Mesa Air Posts Profit in Fiscal Q3

Mesa Air Group (MESA 0.46%), a regional airline operating primarily under capacity purchase agreements for major U.S. carriers, released its third-quarter fiscal 2025 results on August 13, 2025. The main headline was a shift to positive GAAP net income of $0.50 per share in Q3 FY2025, reversing a loss from the prior year, mainly due to a non-recurring gain from the elimination of warrant liabilities. Revenue (GAAP) dropped to $92.8 million, reflecting a 16.3% year-over-year decline, largely due to a reduction in the company’s United Airlines contract. There were no consensus analyst estimates available for comparison. Overall, the quarter marked progress in simplifying Mesa’s operations and paying down debt, but underlying operating results remained pressured.

Company Overview and Recent Focus

Mesa Air Group (MESA 0.46%) specializes in regional air service, flying primarily for larger airlines through capacity purchase agreements (CPAs). In these deals, Mesa supplies aircraft, crews, and maintenance, getting paid for operational capacity rather than how many tickets are sold. Its flights operate as part of partners’ networks, such as United Express.

Over recent quarters, Mesa’s main focus has shifted to simplifying its fleet, reducing debt, and cutting costs. The company is now exclusively flying Embraer 175 regional jets after retiring its older Bombardier CRJ-900s. Success depends on optimizing CPA relationships, keeping aircraft highly utilized, and managing costs amid industry changes. A major development underway is a planned merger with Republic Airways, which could reshape Mesa’s size and opportunities.

Quarterly Developments: Operational and Financial Performance

Revenue contracted 16.3% year over year on a GAAP basis as Mesa’s flying for United Airlines shrank, with both the number of contracted aircraft and block hours down. Contract revenue dropped 26.8% year-over-year, which the company attributed directly to United flying reductions and aircraft disposals. Pass-through revenue, which simply covers reimbursed costs like maintenance, rose 50.3%, but makes up a smaller portion of total revenue and does not contribute profit.

On the profit side, Mesa posted GAAP income of $0.50 per share, after a $0.48 loss a year prior. However, the bulk of this turnaround came from a $25.1 million one-time gain related to writing off warrant liabilities. Core business profit remains weak: adjusted EBITDA was $6.0 million, compared to $8.9 million for Q3 FY2024, down 32.6%. Adjusted net loss was essentially breakeven at $0.6 million, an improvement, but still reflects ongoing underlying challenges in Mesa’s business model.

Mesa’s business is now entirely concentrated on its United Express CPA. A notable operational achievement was completion of the fleet transition: Mesa ended the quarter operating a single type—60 Embraer 175 regional jets. The company sold 6 surplus CRJ-900 airframes and 13 spare engines during Q3 FY2025, generating $17.2 million in proceeds, all of which was applied to debt reduction. Further engine and airframe sales after Q3 FY2025 brought in an extra $11.7 million, accelerating deleveraging efforts. This allowed Mesa to cut total debt from $366.4 million as of June 30, 2024, to $113.7 million as of June 30, 2025, and increase unrestricted cash to $42.5 million.

On operational metrics, daily block hour utilization—meaning how busy each aircraft is—rose 15.4% year-over-year to 9.8 hours. The “completion factor,” a performance metric showing flights completed as scheduled, reached 99.99% for controllable factors. However, downsizing impacted total departures, which fell 8.2%, and passenger numbers, down 10.3%. The airline shifted toward longer flights, with “average stage length” up 12.9% year over year. Stockholders’ equity (GAAP) turned deeply negative, at $(41.3) million as of Q3 FY2025, mainly due to asset write-downs and continued operating losses.

Management flagged the ongoing merger process with Republic Airways as transformative. Mesa expects, if the deal closes, to contribute no debt to the combined business and to benefit from United’s newly enhanced 10-year CPA. Republic, Mesa’s planned merger partner, reported $169 million in adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) for the first half of calendar year 2025. The combined entity projects twelve-month run-rate annual revenue of approximately $1.8 billion to $2.0 billion. Mesa notes $13.3 million of remaining deferred revenue under the existing United contract, expected to be recognized as flights are completed before the merger closes (Q3 FY2025).

One-time items in the quarter were material. In addition to the $25.1 million warrant liability gain, asset sales resulted in proceeds used entirely to pay down U.S. Treasury debt. The decline in stockholders’ equity and asset base highlights that the balance sheet remains fragile despite recent gross debt paydown.

Looking Ahead: Management Guidance and Investor Considerations

Management did not provide explicit forward financial guidance for later quarters or the full-year period. Company commentary instead referenced expectations for operational stability following the fleet transition and merger, especially in connection to the new United agreement.

Investors should watch several areas over the coming quarters. Second, completion and integration of the merger with Republic will be key, as it may resolve some scale and revenue-concentration risks. Third, ongoing reliance on a single contract and concentration of flying with United Express make Mesa sensitive to contract changes or airline partner performance. The company’s negative book value and reduced size could present risks if merger progress stalls or market conditions shift quickly. MESA does not currently pay a dividend.

Revenue and net income presented using U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) unless otherwise noted.