Republic Airways and Mesa Air Group Inc. are combining in an all-stock deal that will create a regional airline with access to more planes to service routes.

Specific financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed in a statement Monday.

Republic, started in 1974, has a fleet of more than 240 Embraer 170/175 aircraft and carried about 17.5 million passengers on more than 300,000 flights last year. It mostly serves Northeast and Mid-Atlantic hubs and operates exclusively under long-term capacity purchase agreements with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

Mesa Air Group, founded in 1982, is the holding company of Mesa Airlines, a regional air carrier that offers service to 89 cities in 40 states, the District of Columbia, the Bahamas, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico. It runs a fleet of 60 Embraer 175 aircraft with more than 250 daily scheduled departures and has approximately 1,700 employees.

Mesa operates all of its flights as United Express under the terms of a capacity purchase agreement with United Airlines.

The combined airline will have a single fleet of approximately 310 Embraer 170/175 aircraft, with more than 1,250 daily departures. It will continue to serve American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines and anticipates keeping all flight crews, technicians, and other operational staff.

“Republic and Mesa share a common mission to connect communities across America, and we believe that we can better achieve that mission together,” Republic President and CEO Bryan Bedford said in a statement on Monday. “With this combination, we are establishing a single, well-capitalized, public company that will benefit from the deep expertise of Republic and Mesa associates, creating value for all stakeholders well into the future.”

The combined company will be called Republic Airways Holdings Inc. and will be listed on the Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol “RJET.” Its board will include six existing directors from Republic’s board and one independent director from the Mesa’s board.

Once the transaction closes, Republic shareholders will own 88% of the combined company’s stock. Mesa shareholders will own at least 6% and up to 12% of the combined company, dependent on achieving certain pre-closing criteria. All outstanding Mesa debt obligations will be extinguished as a result of the transaction.

Both companies’ boards have approved the deal, which is targeted to close in either the late third or early fourth quarter. It still needs approval from the shareholders of both companies.

Shares of Mesa Air Group, based in Phoenix, Arizona, surged more than 67% to $1.20 before the market open.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Billionaires are feeling the burn amid fallout from Trump’s tariff announcement—with the stock market crash leading to names like Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg losing billions in a matter of hours.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories are causing havoc across the global market, with the S&P 500 nearing bear market territory early Monday.

These dramatic market declines are hurting investors small and large—from the 401(k) savings accounts of single families to the elaborate holdings of the world’s richest individuals.

In fact, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg each lost close to $10 billion by the end of the trading day on Friday alone, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index; the world’s 500 richest people experienced the biggest two-day losses ever on April 3 and 4, thanks in part to popular tech stocks, like Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta seeing billions in value wiped out.

And even those close to Trump are feeling the pain. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, has lost the most of any person on Earth. On Friday, his net worth declined by $20 billion—with year-to-date declines totaling over $130 billion. Despite the losses, he’s still the world’s richest man.

Many signs point to further economic turmoil. European, Asian, and American markets all tumbled to start the trading week and could set the stage for one of the biggest declines in billionaire wealth in memory.

One billionaire is still net positive in 2025

One widely known billionaire sticks out from the rest due to his stock market gains remaining positive in 2025. Warren Buffett appears to have predicted a market turn coming. He sold some $134 in equities in 2024 and was sitting on $334 billion in cash at the end of the year. In 2025, he is up by about $12 billion and is the sixth richest person in the world, just behind Bill Gates and Bernard Arnault.

“We were aided by a predictable large gain in investment income as Treasury Bill yields improved and we substantially increased our holdings of these highly-liquid short-term securities,” Buffett wrote to shareholders in February.

While Buffett, too, lost billions last week, his better performance could also be tied to his heads-down approach of staying away from politics—or his simple attitude that prioritizes being thrifty and sensible.

The billionaire club might finally become more exclusive 

Buffett is one of the longest-serving members of the billionaire club, a group that saw record growth in 2024—with the wealth of the richest of the rich increasing three times faster than the year before. Moreover, in early January, billionaires were earning some $10 billion a day and holding more wealth than any country except for the U.S. and China.

If the stock market conditions continue to trend down, a tide could turn on the growing wealth of billionaires, but the losses may not feel as significant as they may for the Americans who were hoping to retire this year or are struggling to grapple with inflation and a frustrating job market.

Nearly three-fourths of all Americans believe wealth inequality is a “serious national issue,” according to a recent survey, and 46% conclude that billionaires hoarding wealth make it harder for ordinary people to achieve the American Dream.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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