Breeze Airways, the new U.S. carrier founded in Salt Lake City by JetBlue founder David Neeleman, has unveiled its debut network of 39 nonstop routes between 16 cities in the Southwest, Midwest, Southeast and eastern United States. The first flights will operate between Charleston, South Carolina; Tampa Bay, Florida; and Hartford, Connecticut; and were scheduled to begin operation last week. The remaining destinations to be added each week through July 22, the airline said in a statement.
Breeze will initially operate a fleet of 13 Embraer e-jets with a fleet of Airbus A220 aircraft scheduled to begin arriving in October.
Breeze is Neeleman’s fifth airline startup, after JetBlue, Brazil’s Azul Airlines, Canada’s WestJet and Utah-based Morris Air, which was later purchased by Southwest Airlines. Although headquartered in Salt Lake City, Breeze will focus most flights from four main airports: Tampa Bay, Charleston, New Orleans and Norfolk, Virginia.
“Together, we created Breeze as a new airline merging technology with kindness,” said Neeleman. “Breeze provides nonstop service between underserved routes across the U.S. at affordable fares. A staggering 95 percent of Breeze routes currently have no airline serving them nonstop. With seamless booking, no change or cancellation fees, up to 24 months of reusable flight credit and customized flight features delivered via a sleek and simple app, Breeze makes it easy to buy and easy to fly.”
Neeleman said Breeze will operate the Embraer aircraft as single-class, flying routes with an average flight length under two hours. Ten E-190 jets will be configured to seat 108 passengers while three E195 aircraft will have 118 seats. All Embraer aircraft will be a two-by-two seat configuration, so there are no middle seats.
Breeze will start taking delivery of 60 new Airbus A220 aircraft beginning in October and delivering at about one per month for five years. The A220 routes, which will be announced this fall, all will be longer than two hours flight time.
Other cities that Neeleman said will be included in future Breeze schedules include Louisville, Kentucky; Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Bentonville/Fayetteville, Arkansas; Akron/Canton and Columbus, Ohio; Huntsville, Alabama; Richmond, Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Providence, Rhode Island; and San Antonio, Texas.
