With airlines working around the clock to ramp up service as quickly as possible, there are also new airlines emerging that hope to take advantage of the pent-up demand to get out of town. With COVID-19 cases reduced to levels not seen since nearly a year ago and multiple vaccines available to anyone who wants one, the U.S. is slowly but surely returning to some degree of normalcy.
Enter Breeze Airways, a new entrant point-to-point carrier that flew its inaugural flights on May 27th with a single trip from Tampa International Airport to Charleston, South Carolina, and another flight from Charleston to Bradley International Airport which serves Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA. Breeze’s founder, David Neeleman, has a long history of starting new carriers, including Morris Air, which was sold long ago to Southwest Airlines, Azul in South America, and the wildly successful Queens, N.Y.-based carrier, JetBlue.
Breeze plans to offer non-stop service in underserved markets, avoiding the major hubs dominated by United, American, Delta and Southwest Airlines. By late July Breeze expects to offer 39 routes from cities like New Orleans, Columbus, Louisville, Huntsville (Alabama) and Tulsa. Other cities expecting Breeze flights in the not-too-distant future include Providence, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, Richmond and Norfolk.
The airline’s simple and inexpensive model will surely be welcomed by travelers. Fares start as low as $39 one-way, checked and carry-on bags each cost $20 per flight, and the aircraft being utilized, Embraer E-190 and E195 twinjets feature an all-economy configuration with 2×2 seating, with no one having to be scrunched into a middle seat.
Complete flight and fare information is available at http://www.flybreeze.com.
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