Republic Airways CEO: 'We are a pure play capacity purchase agreement airline'

Republic Airways chairman and CEO David Grizzle, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas, commented (28-May-2026) on major changes to how regional airlines in the US operate, compared to defunct airlines such as Mohawk Airlines, Bonanza Air Lines and Allegheny Airlines, which operated in the mid to late 20th century. Mr Grizzle noted: "Those carriers, who have now disappeared, they were having to do a lot of things, including selling tickets and negotiating pro-rates with the airlines that they codeshared with", which contemporary airlines such as Republic no longer need to do. He continued: "We are a pure play capacity purchase agreement airline, which means that we have no fuel exposure. We have no passenger marketing exposure. We have to be good at our operations, so we sell reliability, whereas those carriers sold tickets. That is a major change". [more - CAPA TV]