Utah’s Breeze Airways nears full certification

Breeze Airways (MXY, Salt Lake City) is in the home straight in terms of its certification drive after the US Department of Transportation (DOT) finalised a show order giving it the go-ahead to operate scheduled flights throughout the United States. With its economic authority now secured, the start-up must still complete its Part 119 air carrier certification to conduct Part 121 operations from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which, company sources told ch-aviation, should occur in the “next few weeks”. The David Neeleman-backed project has secured a fleet of fifteen E190s, leased from Nordic Aviation Capital, alongside two E195s leased from Elevate Capital Partners through Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras (AD, Sao Paulo Viracopos). It also has sixty A220-300s on order from Airbus Canada the first three of which are due to deliver by year-end. According to the DOT’s order, Breeze must obtain the DOT’s consent before growing its fleet beyond 22 aircraft as it must first demonstrate its fitness to conduct such operations. Once commercially active, Breeze Airways will focus on point-to-point routes between secondary US cities.