Breeze Airways Already Running Into Headwinds

Breeze Airways, the low-budget airline created by JetBlue founder David Neeleman and started eight weeks ago in the midst of a pandemic, has already been forced to cut flights.

Newspapers and journals across the country in cities that Breeze serves have reported the airline has pared back its schedule, including San Antonio; Huntsville, Ala.; Norfolk, Va.; and Charleston, S.C.

Ostensibly, Breeze was to fly in and out of secondary and/or underserved markets. In a good overview by the aviation blog One Mile At A Time, it was noted that Breeze has had to cut frequencies on 33 percent of its routes and has also temporarily suspended five routes.

The following 13 Breeze Airways routes will be reduced from four times a week to twice weekly:

Charleston to Columbus

Charleston to Huntsville

Charleston to Louisville

Charleston to Norfolk

Charleston to Pittsburgh

Charleston to Richmond

Columbus to Norfolk

Huntsville to New Orleans

Huntsville to Tampa

Norfolk to Pittsburgh

San Antonio to Bentonville

San Antonio to Oklahoma City

San Antonio to Tulsa

On top of that, the following routes have been suspended last-minute through late next week (July 29 or July 30, depending on the route):

Norfolk to Charleston

Norfolk to Columbus

Norfolk to Hartford

Norfolk to Pittsburgh

Norfolk to Tampa

Despite the return of air travel and the surge of pent-up demand, Breeze might have been a tad ambitious in scheduling. The thought and plan was there – utilize airports between cities that don’t force passengers to fly in and out of the big facilities, like Hartford instead of Boston or New York, or Columbus instead of Cleveland. But the demand, say, for a flight from Norfolk to Pittsburgh simply might not be there.

Moreover, as One Mile At A Time noted, Breeze has had delays with taking delivery of new aircraft so it doesn’t necessarily have the planes needed to operate the routes.