Breeze Airways' Rapid A220 Growth Drives Fast Pilot Upgrades

Breeze Airways (IATA: MX, ICAO: MXY, callsign MOXY) is a young American low-cost carrier built around a simple idea: connect mid-sized U.S. cities directly, without forcing passengers through a major hub. It was founded in 2018 under the working name "Moxy Airways" by serial aviation entrepreneur David Neeleman, the same founder behind JetBlue, Azul (Brazil), WestJet (Canada) and the original Morris Air. The airline flew its first revenue flight on May 27, 2021, between Tampa and Charleston, and has expanded aggressively ever since.

The company is headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, near Salt Lake City, and operates as the principal subsidiary of Breeze Aviation Group, Inc. Its model is deliberately different from a legacy network carrier. Rather than building a single fortress hub, Breeze runs a distributed, point-to-point map of more than 75 destinations across the United States plus a growing list of leisure markets in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Many of those routes had no prior nonstop service at all, which is the core of the airline's "Seriously Nice" positioning. Breeze has been named a top-four "Best Domestic Airline" by Travel + Leisure for several consecutive years and was listed among Fast Company's most innovative companies for 2025.

For a pilot, the most important context is this: Breeze is a fast-growing startup, not a mature institution. It employs roughly 600 pilots as of mid-2026 (up from zero in 2021), and the entire fleet, route map and crew base structure is still being built out year by year. That growth creates genuine opportunity, especially for rapid command upgrades, but it also means the working environment is less settled than at an established carrier. Crucially, Breeze pilots unionized with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) in 2022 but have not yet secured a first collective bargaining agreement, a fact that shapes nearly every section that follows.

Breeze launched with leased Embraer E190 and E195 jets, transferred largely from David Neeleman's Brazilian carrier Azul, and used them to open thin routes quickly. The long-term plan, however, has always centered on the Airbus A220-300, a clean-sheet, fuel-efficient narrowbody that Breeze flies in a comfortable 137-seat layout. The airline is now well into the transition to an effectively single-type A220 mainline fleet, with the remaining Embraer jets being withdrawn from scheduled service and held back primarily for charter flying.

By mid-2026, Breeze operated roughly 55 Airbus A220-300s with around 8 Embraer E190s remaining, for a total of about 63 aircraft. The A220 orderbook is the headline number: Breeze has built up to roughly 90 firm A220 orders directly from Airbus Canada, with deliveries scheduled to run through 2028. That makes Breeze one of the largest A220 operators in the Americas and means the fleet will keep growing rapidly for the rest of the decade, which is the single biggest driver of hiring and upgrade opportunity.

Fleet data compiled from public sources as of mid-2026. Numbers are approximate and change continuously with ongoing A220 deliveries and Embraer retirements.

For pilots, the type-rating picture is straightforward and getting simpler. New hires are increasingly placed directly on the A220, while the shrinking Embraer fleet means E-Jet flying is no longer the long-term home it once was. The A220 is widely regarded as one of the most modern and pleasant narrowbodies to operate, with a quiet cabin, large windows, fly-by-wire handling and strong field performance that suits the smaller airports Breeze favors. You can review the type's specifications on the manufacturer's official Airbus A220 page.

Breeze pilots are paid on an hourly rate structure typical of U.S. carriers, with separate scales by aircraft type (A220 rates run higher than the legacy Embraer rates) and by year of service. Both line pilots and reserve pilots are backed by a 70-hour monthly pay guarantee, meaning a pilot is paid for at least 70 hours even in a light month. The figures below reflect the company-published pay scale reported across public pilot-pay databases. They are not the product of a negotiated contract, because Breeze pilots do not yet have one.

First Officer Hourly Pay

Annual estimates assume the 70-hour monthly guarantee and exclude per diem, override/premium pay and 401(k) contributions. Pilots who pick up extra flying earn more.

Captain Hourly Pay

A220 captain pay tops out near $280/hr after 12 years. Real totals rise meaningfully for pilots who fly above the 70-hour guarantee or pick up premium open time.

In plain terms: a new First Officer can expect roughly $88,000 in the first year on the guarantee, climbing toward the $115,000-$133,000 range as a senior A220 First Officer. Because Breeze upgrades quickly (see the career section), many pilots reach the left seat well before the First Officer scale tops out, and an A220 Captain on the guarantee earns from about $180,000 at entry to roughly $235,000 at the top of the scale. Per diem has been reported at around $2.00 per hour domestically, modest by industry standards. There is no publicly documented profit-sharing plan, which is a notable gap compared with carriers such as JetBlue or the legacy majors.

Breeze flies under U.S. FAR Part 117 flight-time and duty rules, the same federal fatigue regulations that govern every U.S. Part 121 airline. Beyond that federal floor, however, scheduling and quality-of-life protections at Breeze are governed by company-issued work rules rather than a negotiated contract. Based on public pilot-community reporting, line holders typically see about 18 to 20 days off per month, while reserve pilots are guaranteed a minimum of around 12 days off. The daily minimum credit has been reported at roughly 4 hours, and reserve callout has been described as approximately 90 minutes to report, which is what allows some pilots to "commute" short distances when on reserve.

Illustrative only. Breeze has no published, contractually fixed bidding system; actual rosters depend on base, fleet, seniority and company scheduling practices that can change.

The honest picture on quality of life is mixed and depends heavily on whether you can hold a line. Pilots who hold a line generally describe the schedule as workable, with good day-off counts. The friction point, well documented in pilot forums, is the gap between what some recruits were told at hiring and what actually materialized. Breeze marketed certain bases (Norfolk is the frequently cited example) as "day trip" operations that would let pilots sleep at home every night, but in practice many crews have flown multi-day trips, sometimes six days on followed by extended time off, rather than commuting home nightly. Because there is no contract, scheduling expectations are not enforceable promises.

Breeze offers a standard package of U.S. airline benefits, but it is leaner than what you would find at a major carrier with a mature contract, and several elements that pilots prize (notably profit sharing) are not part of the publicly documented package. The most concrete and well-reported benefit is the 401(k) retirement plan with a company contribution of up to 6%, which Breeze introduced effective January 1, 2024. Health, dental and vision insurance are offered as part of full-time employment, along with standard airline travel privileges on Breeze's own network.

Because Breeze pilots are not yet covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the benefits above are company-determined and can be modified by management. This is a meaningful distinction. At a contract carrier, items like retirement contributions, sick-leave accrual, vacation and insurance cost-sharing are locked in and enforceable. At Breeze, they currently are not. ALPA's stated goal in negotiations is precisely to convert these informal, changeable terms into protected, contractual ones. Until that happens, a pilot should view the benefits package as solid-but-provisional rather than guaranteed.

This is where Breeze is genuinely attractive. A carrier that is adding A220s rapidly toward an orderbook of roughly 90 aircraft needs captains faster than it can grow them organically, and that creates two things pilots want: fast upgrades for First Officers and direct-entry Captain positions for experienced pilots. Breeze actively recruits A220 Captains from outside, and internal First Officers have historically been able to move into the left seat far quicker than at a mature, slow-growing airline where upgrades can take many years or even a decade-plus.

Exactly how fast the internal upgrade runs is the hardest number to pin down, because there is no contractual seniority-and-progression system published, and the pace fluctuates with deliveries and attrition. Pilot-community reporting has described upgrades measured in a small number of years rather than the long waits common at legacy carriers, but a prospective hire should treat any specific figure as an estimate and ask recruiting for the current realistic timeline. The direction of travel, set by the fleet plan, clearly favors quick command opportunities through at least 2028.

Progression at Breeze is not yet governed by a ratified seniority contract; timelines are estimates based on public reporting and the published fleet plan.

Breeze hires through its careers portal and runs a relatively conventional U.S. airline selection process, supplemented by structured pipeline programs (covered in the next section). Hiring volume tracks fleet growth and can pause or surge; at any given moment the airline may be actively hiring A220 Captains, First Officers, both or neither, so checking current openings is essential. All applications and current requirements are posted on the official Breeze Airways careers page.

First Officer — Core Requirements

Note that the 500-hour multi-engine figure is a pipeline/eligibility minimum tied to Breeze's training programs. To act as a Part 121 First Officer you must still meet the FAA's ATP or restricted-ATP certification standards (generally 1,500 hours, or fewer under approved restricted-ATP pathways for military and qualifying degree programs). The certification rules are set by the regulator, not the airline; the authoritative reference is the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Selection Stages

One of Breeze's more distinctive features for aspiring airline pilots is its structured pipeline. Rather than relying solely on direct hiring, Breeze runs two named programs, Embark and Boost, designed to feed early-career pilots into the airline. These are genuinely relevant to readers building hours toward the flight deck, which is why they warrant their own section.

Breeze Embark

Embark is a mentorship and conditional-employment pathway aimed at flight instructors and low-time commercial pilots at partner schools. The basic structure works like this:

• Entry point: A certified flight instructor with around 500 hours total time and a commercial multi-engine certificate at a partner school can interview with Breeze.
• Conditional offer: Successful candidates receive a Conditional Offer of Employment and continue building toward the FAA's 1,500-hour requirement while being mentored.
• Jet transition: Between roughly 1,000 and 1,500 hours, candidates complete a jet-transition course and ATP-CTP training through Breeze's training partner.
• Entry to Breeze: At 1,500 hours, the pilot moves into the Breeze flight deck, having already completed key preparation.

Reported Embark partner schools have included ATP Flight School, Epic Flight Academy, Utah Valley University and Southern Utah University. Throughout the program, Embark pilots attend regular meetings with program staff, receive learning aligned to Breeze's flight-operations procedures, and complete pre-hire assessments along the way. The official Career Track details are published by Breeze's training partner, ATP Flight School.

Breeze Boost

Boost is a complementary, sponsored time-building initiative. Selected participants work with a partner flight-school vendor to build their final stretch of roughly 500 hours toward ATP minimums quickly, with Breeze covering the cost of aircraft and fuel. Breeze has described Boost as a trial program with limited capacity that it hopes to expand. Like Embark, Boost participants attend regular mentor meetings, complete pre-hire assessments and intermittent training, and complete ATP-CTP through Breeze's training partner.

How does Breeze stack up against the two most relevant U.S. comparators? Avelo Airlines is the closest peer: another 2021-vintage, point-to-point, low-cost startup chasing underserved markets. JetBlue is the natural "big sibling" benchmark: the established, ALPA-represented, A220-operating carrier that David Neeleman himself founded, and a realistic next step for many Breeze pilots. Scores below are editorial estimates based on public salary data, pilot reporting and industry benchmarks.

Key Takeaways from the Comparison

On pay, the two startups are close, and JetBlue leads. Avelo's published scale (First Officers from about $131/hr to $201/hr, Captains from about $240/hr to $298/hr, plus a 125% premium above 75 hours) is headline-higher than Breeze's (First Officers $105-$158/hr, Captains $215-$280/hr on the A220), though Breeze's larger, newer A220 fleet supports faster command. JetBlue, with a mature ALPA contract, tops both: published reporting puts JetBlue Captains roughly in the $246,000-$283,000 range, with strong work rules and profit sharing behind those numbers.

Career progression is Breeze's standout. The aggressive A220 delivery stream gives Breeze First Officers some of the quicker upgrade prospects in the U.S. market and opens direct-entry Captain seats. Avelo offers similarly fast startup-style upgrades on its Boeing 737NG fleet, while JetBlue, being larger and more senior, generally has longer upgrade timelines.

Fleet favors Breeze and JetBlue. Breeze flies the modern A220, and JetBlue operates a young, diverse Airbus and A220 fleet. Avelo's used Boeing 737-700/-800s are reliable workhorses but older-generation aircraft, which is why Avelo scores lower on the Fleet axis.

Job security and benefits separate the contract carrier from the startups. JetBlue's ratified contract, profit sharing and scale give it the strongest Benefits and Job Security scores. Both Breeze and Avelo, as young carriers without first contracts protecting pay and work rules, score lower here, and Breeze's well-publicized, unresolved labor dispute (detailed in the next section) is the single biggest weight on its Job Security score.

No factor matters more to a prospective Breeze pilot in 2026 than the state of labor relations, because it touches pay, work rules, benefits and stability all at once. Breeze pilots voted to organize with the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), the largest pilot union in the world, in 2022. Roughly 600 Breeze pilots are now represented. In 2025 the pilot group elected a new Master Executive Council (MEC), with Captain Alexander Kluge re-elected as chair. ALPA's overview of the pilot group is published at breeze.alpa.org.

The central fact: as of mid-2026, Breeze pilots still do not have a first collective bargaining agreement, despite negotiating since early 2023. That is an unusually long road to a first contract, and it means Breeze pilots continue to work under company-set pay scales and work rules rather than negotiated, enforceable terms.

How Bargaining Works Here

Like all U.S. airline labor relations, Breeze negotiations fall under the federal Railway Labor Act (RLA), which is administered by the National Mediation Board. Under the RLA, airline contracts do not simply expire; they become amendable, and the parties are expected to bargain, with federal mediation and a structured cooling-off process before any self-help (such as a strike or lockout) is permitted. For a first contract, the union and company must agree section by section, and progress is often measured by how many of those sections have reached tentative agreement.

By the union's public account, only about 15 of 31 sections had reached tentative agreement after roughly three years, with very few sections settled during 2025 alone, which the pilots cite as evidence of how slowly talks have moved.

Recent Disputes & Timeline

Before applying or making a career decision, verify everything directly with official sources, especially given how quickly conditions change at a growing startup. These are the key organizations and pages relevant to a Breeze Airways pilot career: