Release #02.086
September 20, 2002

WASHINGTON, D.C --- Uniformed pilots of CCAir, Mesa Airlines, and Air Midwest will conduct informational picketing Sept. 22 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport to demonstrate their solidarity and to send Mesa Air Group management the message that it’s time to stop playing games with their careers.

CCAir, Mesa Airlines, and Air Midwest are wholly owned subsidiary carriers of Mesa Air Group and operate as US Airways Express carriers in Charlotte.

The pilots of Mesa Airlines and Air Midwest, who work under the same contract, are in federally mediated contract negotiations seeking reasonable improvements in their pay, retirement, and working conditions.

At CCAir, management continues to threaten to shut down the airline, and already more than 80 of the 135 pilots are furloughed. Mesa Air Group management has sought huge, unsubstantiated concessions from the CCAir pilots and has unfairly tried to blame the pilots for the airline’s financial state.

"Although the pilots of Mesa Airlines and CCAir face some different challenges, we are all confronting a management that seems intent on holding down the wages and working conditions of all Mesa Air Group pilots," said Captain Andrew Hughes, chairman of the Mesa Airlines ALPA unit. "We want to demonstrate to management our unity and resolve in improving the quality of life for all of the highly trained, professional pilots who have worked so hard to build Mesa Air Group into a profitable and growing company."

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s oldest and largest pilot union, representing more than 66,000 pilots at 43 airlines in the U.S. and Canada, including approximately 1,200 Mesa Airlines pilots. Visit the ALPA Website at www.alpa.org.

Picketing will be conducted as follows:

Sunday, Sept. 22, 2002

9 to 10:30 a.m.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport; Outside at Departures and at Arrivals

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ALPA Contact: Teresa Mattick (703) 481-4440

Capt. Robert Henry, (704) 819-2943