A Breeze Airways airplane on the tarmac at Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Florida, on May 27, 2021.
Matt May | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. startup airline Breeze Airways is planning to fly internationally for the first time early subsequent yr, aiming to win over sun-seeking vacationers because the provider enters its fifth yr of flying.
The airline’s host of seasonal service kicks off on Jan. 10 with a Saturday-only route between Norfolk, Virginia, and Cancun, Mexico, adopted by roundtrips between Charleston, South Carolina, and Cancun on Jan. 17, additionally solely on Saturdays.
Other routes embrace Saturday service to Cancun ranging from New Orleans on Feb. 7 and from Providence, Rhode Island, every week later. In March, Breeze can also be planning to start out Thursday and Saturday service between Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina and Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Wednesday and Saturday service to Punta Cana within the Dominican Republic. Flights from Tampa, Florida, to Montego Bay begin on Feb. 11.
Breeze was launched by JetBlue‘s founder, David Neeleman, and debuted in the course of the pandemic, in May 2021.
The provider been working for years with the Federal Aviation Administration to win certification to fly internationally, Lukas Johnson, Breeze’s chief business officer, mentioned in an interview.
It’s the first sizeable U.S. passenger airline to win that certification since Virgin America, which was acquired by Alaska Airlines in 2016, Johnson mentioned.
He mentioned Breeze is continuous its enterprise mannequin of flying its Airbus A220-300s between cities which have little to no competitors from rivals and added that the brand new routes are “an exciting starting point for us.”
“We feel really confident that it’s going to be a guest response,” he mentioned.
Fares for the brand new routes begin as little as $99 a technique, however Johnson mentioned premium-class demand for its pricier, roomier seats has been robust and that there’s a double-digit proportion of company who ebook to a costlier seat the second time they fly Breeze.