Breeze Airways, a start-up carrier that hopes to begin flying this spring, is giving up on a plan to hire only college students as flight attendants after the strategy failed to draw enough applicants. The airline, founded by JetBlue creator David Neeleman, posted a new listing for flight attendants on Friday without the student requirement.

Breeze originally offered “current and future” online students at Utah Valley University up to US$6,000 per year in educational assistance, a monthly salary, company housing, and one paid trip home each month.

Breeze spokesman Gareth Edmondson-Jones said the airline is keeping the program with the college in Orem, Utah, while broadening its search. “The UVU course wasn’t delivering the numbers of flight attendants we need,” he said.

The Association of Flight Attendants had criticized Breeze’s original plan, saying that the college-student requirement would prevent people from turning the job into a career.

“It attempted to take us back more than 60 years,” union President Sara Nelson said. She said she is still concerned about the pay and shifting costs to workers.

Utah-based Breeze plans to carry leisure travellers to smaller cities that have been overlooked or abandoned by larger airlines. The airline hasn’t said which cities it will serve, but Neeleman has hinted it will start in the Southeast, including Florida.