Mesa Air Group

Inc. magazine names Mesa one of the fastest-growing small companies in the United States. Five million passengers a year fly Mesa Air Group, Inc., although they may not know it by name: the company operates regional feeder flights under the brands America West Express and US Airways Express. It flies under its own brand in New Mexico. The group's young fleet visits 130 cities in the United States and also flies to Canadian and Mexican destinations. More than 90 percent of revenues come from America West Express and US Airways Express. By his own admission, Larry L. Risley barely graduated from high school, having judged anything above a 'C' grade 'a wasted effort.' He then enlisted in the U.S. Army and eventually obtained an aviation mechanic's license, aspiring to nothing more than emulating his two older brothers, who were employed as union mechanics for two major airlines. However, following the career path chosen by his brothers proved difficult for Risley, who became a somewhat itinerant worker, securing employment at general aviation fields then quickly losing his job or quitting in anger, as he disliked working under anyone's supervision. In between his stints as an aviation mechanic, Risley found employment where he could get it, including selling burglar alarms and working as a janitor in a baby clothes factory. Later recalling this period of his life, Risley noted, 'I was really out of my element.' Risley's prospects brightened in 1970 when he found his first opportunity to work alone, unfettered by a supervisor, opening an aircraft engine shop in Waxahachie, Texas. This comfortable niche, however, soon deteriorated. Several of his customers reneged on payments, debts mounted, and Risley's engine shop dissolved. It would be roughly another decade before an opportunity for success arrived, but when it did, Risley took hold and entrenched himself in the industry that had for so long eluded him. In 1979, through the efforts of his brother-in-law, Risley was hired by Four Corners Drilling Co., an oil company based in Farmington, New Mexico, to manage its charter airline service. Oil was a plentiful and lucrative commodity in the region during this period, and Risley was kept busy maintaining a fleet of 14 small planes that shuttled oil drillers to and from the desert. The oil boom era in the region was short-lived, however, shuddering to a stop in 1980. The downward spiral of oil prices forced Four Corners Drilling to sharply reduce its drilling activities. The company's fleet of planes was sold as a consequence, but Risley convinced the company to keep one plane, a five-seat Piper, so he could try to establish a shuttle airline service between Farmington and Albuquerque. With this one small plane, Risley established the foundation from which Mesa Airlines evolved. He advertised on local radio, placed signs along the roads surrounding Four Corners Regional Airport, and, perhaps most importantly, charged half the ticket price of his rival, Frontier Airlines Inc. After two years, during which both Risley and his wife worked seven days a week maintaining and operating the shuttle service, the couple decided to purchase the plane, offering their pickup truck and house as collateral against a $125,000 loan. The following year, 1983, their fledgling enterprise was incorporated as Mesa Air Shuttle, Inc. From the beginning Risley's operating philosophy was to fly only small planes between cities and towns in need of additional airline service and to pay close attention to the company's operating costs. Those costs largely resulted from aircraft maintenance, a task for which Risley was particularly well suited. Keeping costs low also carried over into other areas, such as having the pilots of the shuttle service assist in loading passengers' baggage, reducing the number of gate crew at arrival and destination points, and keeping the number of reservation agents to a minimum. Risley's strategy was to have a comparatively sma