DOT tentatively grants scheduled authority to Breeze Airways

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is set to award a certificate of public convenience and scheduled authority to Breeze Airways (MXY, Salt Lake City), permitting the start-up to operate up to 22 aircraft. The nascent carrier, which is backed by US-Brazilian entrepreneur David Neeleman, applied for the permit on February 7, 2020. Following a number of further clarifications in late 2020, the DOT found the airline had fulfilled all the financial, ownership, and personnel requirements to be approved for launch. As such, the DOT will finalise the show-cause order if not objections are raised in the next 14 days. The tentative authority does not cover charter services. Although Breeze Airways initially planned to debut on the charter market before venturing into the scheduled segment, it abandoned these plans during the COVID-19 pandemic to focus exclusively on the latter. The start-up now aims to focus on mid-sized cities that are underserved by larger US mainline carriers. Breeze Airways has already taken delivery of its first two aircraft, an E190 dry-leased from Nordic Aviation Capital and an E195 sub-leased from Neeleman’s Brazilian airline, Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras and owned by Elevate Capital Partners. The start-up has already signed for one more Embraer aircraft from Azul and fourteen more from NAC. It anticipates adding a third ex-Azul regional jet before starting operations. Separately, Breeze has a firm order for sixty A220-300s. The Airbus Canada aircraft are due to start delivering in August 2021, with three units due by the end of 2021 and subsequently approximately one delivery per month starting in January 2022. Breeze has told ch-aviation that it expects to complete certification “within a month or so”, although a launch timeline has yet to be confirmed. The largest shareholders of Breeze Airways are David Neeleman (35.8% of the shares), Peterson Partners (23.9%), and Sandlot Opportunity Fund I, LLC (14.1%). The company is wholly US-owned.