Breeze Airways, the new project of JetBlue founder David Neeleman, has reshaped its start-up plans now that the Covid pandemic has pushed it into next year.
The fledgling airline now plans a start in May 2021, with flights connecting 15 cities East, South, Midwest and Texas, making connections that can’t be made directly with the major airlines that, Breeze says, treat the area as “fly-over” country. Eventually it plans a wider network, including between the East Coast and California, some of the country’s most densely-served routes.
While the airline is missing its original start plans for this October, it actually has benefited from the ongoing crisis in two ways, making available planes and paper it hadn’t planned on.
For a start, Breeze needed to apply for an air carrier operator certificate, which can be a lengthy process, although Neeleman has been through it before and presumably knows the ropes. However, the pandemic-induced bankruptcy of two regional airlines has allowed Breeze to short-circuit the process by buying Compass Air and its certificate.
Breeze has a fleet of A220-300 planes on order, and had expected to start service with Embraer E195s leased from another Neeleman business, Brazil’s Azul Airways until the A220s arrive. Airline fleet changes during the crisis have enabled Breeze to cancel that deal to take a cheaper price on 17 E190s.
Neeleman could be described as a serial airline entrepreneur. He founded Morris Air and sold it to Southwest, was present at the birth of both JetBlue and WestJet, and is the principal owner of Azul. Until recently he also owned nearly a quarter of TAP Portugal and is still involved with the airline.
