Mesa Air Group has signalled its intention to go public following the filing of an IPO prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week.

Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., Cowen and Company, LLC, Stifel Nicolaus & Company, and Imperial Capital, LLC have been appointed underwriters.

Net proceeds from the sale, whose parameters have yet to be defined, will be used to repay various debts and to provide general working capital, which may include aircraft acquisitions and lease buyouts.

Mesa Air Group controls Mesa Airlines (YV, Phoenix Sky Harbor), a US-based passenger capacity provider which operates 80 aircraft (twenty CRJ700s and sixty E175s) for United Airlines under the United Express banner and sixty-four CRJ900s for American Airlines under the American Eagle banner.

In terms of future growth plans, Mesa Group said it may consider acquiring other regional air carriers, should they become available via divestiture or otherwise. It is also looking at entering the cargo market with particular emphasis on cooperating with Amazon.com and several of the largest integrated logistics companies, including United Parcel Service, Inc., FedEx Express, and DHL Express.

"We intend to explore future regional air cargo opportunities," it said. "We believe that our cost structure and business model may be successfully deployed in the burgeoning air cargo and express shipping sectors."