Utah native David Neeleman’s new Breeze Airways airplanes. Photo courtesy of David Neeleman, Breeze Airways.
SALT LAKE CITY — Breeze Airways is a new low-fare carrier that serves cities mainly in the East and Southeast. It doesn’t fly into Salt Lake City yet, but it’s opened a new flight training facility near the Salt Lake City International Airport at 5675 W 300 South.
Right now, the facility has only one full-motion flight simulator available to train its crews. But Director of Corporate Communications Gareth Edmonson-Jones says they’ll expand until they have the capacity to train as many as 200 pilots and other personnel, such as flight attendants, technical operations teams, and instructors.
“The facility’s big enough that we can have as many as six flight simulators in there, or flight training devices, all the escape slides and door trainers and all the things an airline needs,” Edmonson-Jones told KSL Newsradio.
While the first simulator will be for the Embraer 190 aircraft Breeze currently operate, it’s expanding its fleet.
“Breeze has 80 brand-new Airbus A220’s on order. We’ve taken the first couple only, but we’ll double our fleet this year,” he said.
The airline will partner with the nation’s largest flight school, ATP Flight School. The partnership’s program will help new pilots gain First Officer certification as they gain experience behind the controls.
As for when Breeze Airways will begin service to Salt Lake City, Edmonson-Jones says it shouldn’t be long.
“We just announced ten new cities last week. We’re always looking at next opportunities and we’re talking to, not just SLC, but all the airports in the region.”
The founder of Breeze, David Neeleman also started Jet Blue and was raised here in Utah.