Breeze Airways has announced two additional routes, including a new city. It is the latest addition to the startup airline’s recent expansion and brings commercial airline service back to a well-known city.
The new destination will be Ogden, Utah. Breeze will begin flying from Ogden to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif. on February 21, 2024. Ogden is Breeze’s second city in Utah after Provo, which is 45 minutes to the south.
Breeze will be the only airline serving Ogen after competitors Avelo Airlines and Allegiant Air left the market last year. Breeze is serving the airport four times per week: on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Ogden is the 45th airport in Breeze’s network, and the airline will operate its Airbus A220s on the route.
“Ogden has a rich travel history having once served as a transfer point between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads,” Breeze President Tom Doxey said. “Today, Breeze is writing a new chapter for Ogden — one in which its residents get access to simple, affordable, and convenient air travel to highly desirable destinations like Orange County.”
The Ogden City Council voted 4-2 on Tuesday to provide a $250,000 incentive to Breeze to serve the airport. Startup costs could range from $800,000 to $1 million. City council members who approved the benefit see minimal risk in providing the funds, especially considering that the Los Angeles area is the top travel destination for Ogden residents.
Breeze is also starting a new route from San Bernardino International Airport to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport. It is Breeze’s third route out of San Bernardino, another airport where it is the only airline. Flights will operate twice per week, on Thursdays on Sundays, seasonally from February 15 through June 2 of next year.
Airline’s Other Developments
These new routes are only the latest additions to Breeze’s network. The carrier recently added Evansville, Indiana; Grand Junction, Colorado; Madison, Wisconsin; and others to its network. The announcement also comes a day after the first Breeze flight departed from Plattsburgh, New York for Orlando, Florida.
Many of these new airports, with the notable exceptions of Madison and Orland, center around airport airports where there is no other competition. Many others, such as Evansville, have only minimal services. Founder David Neeleman called Breeze “Allegiant better” since Allegiant, a major ultra-low-cost carrier in the US, also centers their business model around many smaller secondary airports away from city centers.
“These pockets of pain that are being created, because either there is no air service there, it’s gone away completely, or it’s just regional planes going to hubs, has created hundreds and hundreds of market opportunities for us,” said Neeleman.
Neeleman especially pointed to the current struggles that ultra-low-cost airlines are facing as demand drops. Using larger aircraft like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, as compared to Breeze’s Airbus A220s and Embraer E190 series planes, make it tougher for other low-cost airlines to make money in markets that are already tight, Neeleman says.
All these developments come as Breeze is trying to be certified as a US flag carrier to enable it to operate international routes. Such international destinations have proven lucrative for mainline carriers since the pandemic recovery. Ireland is one potential destination for the carrier, as there is a lot of tourism and visiting-friends-and-family traffic between the two countries. Breeze particularly wants to take advantage of peak travel seasons.
