A Breeze Airways Airbus A220 taxis to the gate after flying inaugural Las Vegas to San Bernardino … [+]
This time David Neeleman has decided to bet the ranch on Providence, R.I.
Neeleman, 64, is known for good bets. In 2000, he bet on JFK, launching an airline that in many ways in its early days was wildly successful. JetBlue was, for a time, glamorous. Aviation consultant Mike Boyd consultant once said, “JetBlue doesn’t have customers. It has groupies.”
At an airport event, Neeleman announced Wednesday that T.F.Green International Airport (PVD) will become the carrier’s largest airport by capacity and departures, with consistent growth over the next five year. It will surpass Charleston, S.C. as Breeze’s number one airport by the end of this year.
From PVD, Breeze is already the largest carrier by destinations, serving 18 cities with 132 weekly flights. Within five years, the totals are expected to reach 35 destinations and 200 weekly flights.
In a press release, Breeze said the destinations will include three international or U.S. territory cities. In an interview, Neeleman would not specify destinations. But he noted that “Providence is interested in having flights out west and in having international flights.” He said the Airbus A220, which will become the only aircraft in the fleet, can fly to Iceland and Ireland from Providence. Other international possibilities include Canada and the Caribbean.
Why Providence?
“It’s a great place, an underserved market, obviously close to Boston, where you have some catchment area,” Neeleman said. “I think sometimes when you have a big airport like Boston with a lot of service, and you have another airport nearby, airports like Providence get left out.”
Neeleman referred to JetBlue’s origin, drawing an analogy between JFK and Providence. “This is the same thing as JFK,” he said. “When we went there with JetBlue, airlines didn’t want all the airports, so they picked two – LaGuardia and Newark.”
However, he said, at JFK JetBlue competed directly with other airlines. The first three routes were to Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Buffalo. By contrast, the Breeze philosophy is that “We’re basically flying where other people don’t fly. We fly where we can make the most money, and you make more money where other people don’t fly.”
In 2023, Southwest was the leading airline at PVD with a 34% market share, followed by American with 23%, Breeze with 14% and Delta with 13%, JetBlue with 10% and United with 5%, according to airport statistics.
Breeze has some overlap with competitors, but most of its markets are unique. The 18 markets include six Florida airports; Charleston, Greenville/Spartanburg and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina; Raleigh in North Carolina; Norfolk and Richmond in Virginia; Savannah; Pittsburgh; Cincinnati and Columbus in Ohio; Denver and Los Angeles. So for now, 13 of the 18 markets are in the South. Breeze avoids Atlanta and Charlotte, the region’s two primary airports.
Another Breeze airport, Hartford’s Bradley International Airport, is about 100 miles from T.F. Green. Breeze is also growing at Bradley, where this month it has added or will add five destinations: Myrtle Beach, Cincinnati, Greenville/Spartanburg, Orlando and New Bern, N.C. It will have 18 destinations from BDL, where American, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest are the four top carriers. Still, “It works well to have two airports” in Southern New England, Neeleman said.
What enables Breeze’s rapid growth?
The answer is new airplanes, all Airbus A220s. Just as he hooked JetBlue’s fate to the Airbus A320, which became the 21st century’s hottest aircraft, Neeleman has linked Breeze’s fate to another hot aircraft. This week, Breeze took delivery of its twenty-fifth A220: It will take an additional 65, approximately one per month, over the next five years. The aircraft operates with 137 seats in three seating categories.
Breeze said recently it will move all scheduled service to the A220 fleet by fall 2024. Its average aircraft age will be under two years. Breeze will continue to fly Embraer E190 jets for charter service, with NCAA basketball teams as the primary customers.
On Tuesday, Breeze celebrated its third birthday. It announced a fare sale with 33% off all roundtrip tickets purchased by May 24 for travel May 29 through Oct. 1.
The carrier began selling tickets on May 21, 2021. It originally served 16 destinations including Providence: Its inaugural flight was Tampa to Charleston on May 27, 2021. Neeleman revealed Wednesday that April was the second profitable month in Breeze’s history: March was the first. He also said that despite the May 7th vote by flight attendants to join the Association of Flight Attendants, he has not yet spoken with AFA President Sara Nelson. “That’s not in my lane,” he said. “It’s for our legal department.”
