America’s largest flight attendant union with more than 50,000 members at airlines including United, Frontier and Alaska has vowed to stop serial aviation entrepreneur David Neeleman’s new airline employing university students who also happen to work part-time hours as flight attendants on a four year term.

The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) has likened the employment style as akin to gig economy jobs such as drivers at Uber and Instacart. “On the surface, you can also extrapolate that most of the people who will ‘qualify’ for this lifestyle are younger people, with an expiration date when they fail to continue to meet the “youthful” requirements,” warns the United branch of AFA.

“From a Union’s perspective, that’s age discrimination plain and simple. This concept must be viewed for what it is – a direct assault on our profession and careers”. Breeze Airways is actively recruiting flight attendants through a partnership with Utah Valley University ahead of the airline’s launch later this year.