US startup Breeze Airways will significantly expand its route map in the upcoming summer season, including adding major West Coast cities to its network and launching its first transcontinental services.
In all, 10 cities will be added to the carrier’s network, including Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO). Currently, San Antonio (SAT), Texas, is the western-most point in Breeze’s eastern US-focused network.
But the addition of the Airbus A220-300 aircraft, of which the airline has 80 on order, will enable the airline to operate much longer routes than it can with its current fleet comprising Embraer E190 and E195 aircraft.
Speaking last month at the Routes Americas conference in San Antonio, Breeze CCO Lukas Johnson said most of the airline’s 42 point-to-point routes take 1-2.5 hr. to fly. But the A220 “will be able to fly transcon pretty easily,” he said.
The A220-300 has a flying range of over 6 hr. Breeze, which entered service in May 2021, plans to have six to seven A220s in its fleet by this summer.
“The A220-300 is a game-changer for us as we now add long-haul flights and transcontinental service,” Breeze founder and CEO David Neeleman said when announcing the new routes March 8. Breeze’s initial A220 deliveries will be configured with 126 seats. Eventually, later deliveries will be configured with 137 seats.
From LAS, Breeze will launch 2X-weekly service in June to Fort Myers (RSW), Florida; Richmond (RIC), Virginia; and Syracuse (SYR), New York. In August, the carrier will add 3X-weekly service from LAS to Charleston (CHS), South Carolina and Jacksonville (JAX), Florida. Also in August, it will start flying 2X-weekly from LAS to Huntsville (HSV), Alabama and Norfolk (ORF), Virginia.
From LAX, Breeze will launch service the week starting June 27 to ORF, Savannah (SAV), Georgia and Providence (PVD), Rhode Island. Service on the SAV and PVD routes will be operated 2X-weekly, while flights to ORF will be flown 3X-weekly.
From SFO, the carrier will open 2X-weekly service in May to Louisville (SDF), Kentucky and RIC. Also in May, it will start 3X-weekly service between SFO and CHS. The carrier will operate daily service between SFO and San Bernardino (SBD), California beginning Aug. 4.
Nashville (BNA), Tennessee is another large airport scheduled to be added to Breeze’s network this summer. From BNA, the carrier will fly to Akron (CAK), Ohio 4X-weekly starting May 26. In June, it will launch service from BNA to Hartford (BDL), Connecticut to be operated 4X-weekly. Also in June, 2X-weekly service will start from BNA to Oklahoma City (OKC) and Tulsa (TUL) in Oklahoma.
Once the summer expansion is complete, Breeze will operate 77 routes on a network spanning 28 US cities. While all of Breeze’s new routes are domestic, Neeleman has previously said he is eyeing operating A220s on international routes in the future.
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