Utah’s Breeze Airways scraps bid to acquire Compass licences

Breeze Airways (MXY, Salt Lake City) has abandoned plans to acquire certificate authority from defunct carrier Compass Airlines (United States of America) (CP, Minneapolis/St. Paul) and will instead pursue its own. The nascent carrier had planned to acquire Compass’s scheduled interstate authority in an effort to expedite its launch. However, in a follow-up filing to the US Department of Transportation (DOT), Breeze said only that they were withdrawing their joint application for the transfer of certificate authority without giving any explanation. A spokesman subsequently told ch-aviation that Breeze will now pursue stand-alone approval as well as its own certificates and is still aiming to launch in 2021. Prior to the termination of the deal, Breeze had said that it was working with Compass and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials at Compass’s supervising Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) and Certificate Management Office (CMO) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Had the deal gone through, Breeze would have used Minneapolis/St. Paul, Compass’s former main base, for its inaugural hub of operations. Earlier this month, Breeze secured twelve Embraer E1 jets from Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras (AD, Sao Paulo Viracopos), another David Neeleman-affiliated firm, with deliveries due to run over the next 18 months, including three this year. Breeze had earlier indicated it had dropped Azul’s offer in favour of one from Nordic Aviation Capital covering fifteen E190s.