PROVIDENCE – Breeze Airways is staffing up as it prepares to open a permanent base out of Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in March.
The budget airline on Wednesday announced job postings for nine different types of positions related to its new Rhode Island hub, which will open on March 29. The company has committed to bringing 250 jobs to Rhode Island, with an average annual pay of $90,000, over a 12-year period.
It’s not clear how many people the company is hiring ahead of the base opening. Gareth Edmonson-Jones, a Breeze spokesman, said the hiring will be “ongoing.”
Jobs posted to the company website for Providence include aircraft maintenance technicians, full- and part-time flight attendants, a “materials specialist” and various supervisory jobs. The company also said it’s hiring for direct-entry A220 captains, although that job was not posted online as of Wednesday midday.
The state through the R.I. Commerce Corp. has authorized $2.9 million in tax credits in exchange for the jobs created through the new base. The redeemable tax credits, via R.I. Commerce’s Qualified Jobs Tax Credit program, will be distributed over a 10-year period for 116 of the new jobs (other jobs are contract positions and not eligible for tax credits).
Under the 10-year tax-credit structure, the company will have to create a minimum of 58 jobs in the first year, PBN previously reported.
Separately, Breeze will receive $2.25 million in incentives for fiscal 2023 to pay for destination marketing and ground operations, as approved by the Air Service Development Council, another R.I. Commerce committee.
As part of its base at Green, Breeze plans to offer 20 nonstop routes out of Green – currently there are three – and house between six and eight aircraft there. Company CEO David Neeleman previously estimated Breeze would spend $160 million to open a permanent base in Rhode Island.
The hub and corresponding jobs are expected to add about $6 million in income, sales and business tax revenue over a 12-year period, the state previously announced.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
