Startup airline Breeze is starting to receive the first of its on-order fleet of A220 jetliners, and it has big plans for them, according to founder David Neeleman. Breeze has been flying since May with older Embraer planes.
Neeleman, who’s had a hand in half a dozen other startups, including JetBlue, says that Breeze is taking steps that will differentiate it from other startups that share its philosophy of connecting cities that don’t fit into major airlines’ route maps. At a press event last week, he announced one difference and strongly hinted at another.
The first big difference is at the front of the plane, where Breeze will operate with 36 business-class recliner seats in a 2 x 2 format, which will sell for more, but not as much more as on most airlines. Neeleman says Breeze can do that because going to 2 x 2 from the A220’s 3 x 2 norm gives up fewer seats; he suggested that the ‘Nicest’ seats might be only about a $50 upcharge.
He also speculated that if demand calls for it, the 36 recliners could be swapped out for 21 lie-flats. Neeleman said that the plane is adaptable enough that it would only take a day or two to swap seats to allow 126, 135 or 145 seats depending on demand. And that hint of lie-flats led reporters covering the event to focus on Neeleman’s continually dropping the words ‘transcontinental’ and ‘long-haul’ into the conversation. Perhaps that’s next.
