Mesa Airlines

Mesa Pilots Navigate Republic Merger

The Mesa Airlines pilots’ primary objective in 2025 was clear: secure improvements to a contract that became amendable in July 2021. However, the flight plan shifted dramatically when the company announced a merger with Republic Airways. The Mesa ALPA Master Executive Council (MEC) leaders immediately pivoted from standard negotiations to the complex logistics of corporate integration, protecting the interests of Mesa pilots while engaging with another union and a new management team.

Both pilot unions presented a unified front. ALPA and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 357, representing Republic pilots, communicated a nonnegotiable standard to management—no transfer of aircraft or pilots could occur without a single Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA) and a unified seniority list.

Throughout 2025, the Mesa MEC worked with IBT leaders to forge a Transition and Process Agreement (TPA), which was finalized in December. This agreement governs the path to a JCBA and integrated pilot seniority list. Concurrently, the corporate merger was finalized in November; the stock ticker transitioned from MESA to RJET, and Republic management officially assumed control. For now, the carriers continue to operate as separate entities.

The focus for Mesa pilots in 2026 is completing the merger. Negotiations for the JCBA began in December 2025 and are expected to continue throughout this year. If the parties don’t reach agreement by the end of November 2026, either management or the unions can submit the remaining open issues to interest arbitration. Once the JCBA process is complete, work will begin on integrating the seniority list and, operationally, to move the two carriers toward a single operating certificate. In all phases of the merger process, the MEC will continue defending the interest of Mesa pilots through planning and coordination with their fellow union members at IBT Local 357.

What began as a year of contract recovery, 2025 evolved into a major transformation, and Mesa pilots now move toward a unified future within the new Republic framework.