7, 2008, Mesa Air Group, the parent company of Freedom Airlines, entered litigation about contractual obligations with Delta Air Lines. Delta attempted to terminate the ERJ-145 contract due to supposed failures to meet completion in 3 of the last 6 months. On May 29, 2008, a federal judge blocked Delta from terminating Freedom's regional flying contract which, according to parent company Mesa Air Group would have forced it to file for bankruptcy protection by July 20 and cut 700 jobs or 14 percent of its work force. Since then, the ERJ-145 fleet has been reduced to 22 operating aircraft along with 5 spares. CRJ-900 Contract In August 2008, Mesa announced that Delta was terminating Freedom's contract to operate CRJ-900 aircraft. As with the ERJ-145 contract, Mesa alleged that the cancellation was driven by Delta's intention to cut capacity rather than Freedom's failure to meet operational performance standards, as Delta claims. However, unlike the ERJ-145 contract, Delta's attempt to cancel the contract was successful. The seven CRJ-900s were returned to Delta with no further financial obligation to Mesa. They were being operated by Pinnacle Airlines until they received the last of their CRJ-900s orders. After that, 5 were operated by Mesaba Airlines. The other 2 were operated by Atlanta-based Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Shutdown In May 2010, a federal judge ruled against regional carrier Mesa Air Group in the long-running dispute with Delta Air Lines over the larger carrier's right to cancel a regional jet service contract. Mesa said in a statement that it may now have to lay off 500 workers at its Freedom Airlines subsidiary because 22 of its regional jets will be without work. On August 31, 2010, the last flight for Freedom Airlines operated. Fleet at time of closure The Freedom Airlines fleet at the time it ceased operations consisted of the following aircraft: Retired fleet See also List of defunct airlines of the United States References External links Mesa Air Group Website Airlines based in Texas Airlines established in 2002 Airlines disestablished in 2010 Companies based in Irving, Texas Defunct regional airlines of the United States Mesa Air Group Defunct companies based in Texas 2002 establishments in the United States 2010 disestablishments in Texas Defunct airlines of the United States