US’s Breeze Airways nets $200mn to fuel further growth
Breeze Airways (MX, Salt Lake City) parent company Breeze Aviation Group has closed USD200 million in fresh funding which it will deploy to further expand operations, the new ultra-low cost carrier announced on August 18.
The Series B funding round – one of the stages in the capital-raising process of a start-up – was led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Knighthead Capital Management. The group previously raised more than USD100 million and commenced flight operations on May 27.
According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced and ch-aviation capacities modules, Breeze Airways currently operates thirteen Embraer regional jets, namely ten ERJ 190-100ARs, all but one of them leased, and three leased E195ARs, on 39 routes between 16 cities in the United States with an average flight length of under two hours.
It will start taking delivery of 60 new A220-300s in October, which will be delivered at a rate of about one per month over the next five years. The A220 routes, to be announced this autumn, will be longer than two hours’ flying time.
The new funding round also includes additional investments by the airline’s existing investors, including Peterson Partners and Sandlot Partners. Breeze claimed that the more than USD300 million in start-up capital it had raised so far is “more than any other US start-up within three months of operations launch.”
David Neeleman, the carrier’s chief executive and chairman of the board, said that “welcoming funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and Knighthead and additional funding from our existing investors further validates our business strategy to offer new nonstop flights at reduced fares between smaller cities where the guest’s only choice today is a lengthy connecting flight through a large hub airport.”
Breeze is already profitable on many routes on a variable cost basis, Neeleman told Reuters in an interview on August 18, claiming it had carried more than 100,000 passengers since launching operations. The new funding shows the airline is “here to stay,” he added, and will allow it to “be opportunistic about some airplanes that might be available.” The airline – Neeleman’s fifth commercial airline start-up – has had to work to develop new and unserved routes. “It’s just getting the word out,” he said.