U.S. start-up carrier Breeze Airways plans to keep a dual fleet of Embraer E190/195s and Airbus A220s to utilize on secondary short-haul markets and long thin routes.
“We will retain a mix of aircraft,” Breeze founder David Neeleman said at the virtual World Aviation Festival April 19.
The carrier now plans to launch services “this summer,” according to Neeleman. “We are at the very tail-end of getting regulatory approvals.” Breeze will start sales immediately after it has received its air operator’s certificate (AOC). “There is a great opportunity to start an airline now. There is a ton of pent-up demand on the leisure side,” Neeleman said, conceding that it is “not clear when corporate travel comes back.”
Breeze will initially begin with a fleet of used E190s and E195s, sourced from Azul, an airline also founded by Neeleman, and lessor Nordic Aviation Capital. The first of the 60 A220-300s is now scheduled to arrive in October.
“The Achilles heel [of the E-Jets] has always been ownership and maintenance cost,” said Neeleman, who bought the aircraft for JetBlue and Azul. But now he sees a 70% reduction in ownership costs and, as surplus aircraft can be used to be parted out, maintenance costs are also less of an issue.
Breeze plans to fly the E190s in a 110-seat configuration while the E195s will be laid out for 122 passengers. The aircraft will predominantly be used on routes of little more than one hour and only rarely up to two hours as its efficiency deteriorates on longer routes, according to Neeleman. The initial summer route map will be leisure-focused secondary to secondary markets bypassing hubs. Eighty percent of the routes will have no nonstop competition, Neeleman said.
The route network, combined with the smaller aircraft now available more cheaply in terms of ownership and operating costs, means that “we will be twice as fast at half the price,” Neeleman said. “We will go into markets that have not been viable for the major airlines.” Neeleman also argued that competition with LCCs will be limited because the Embraers allow it to enter much smaller markets.
Neeleman did not reveal details about initial destinations, apart from saying that “the routes are more leisure-focused than they would have been [before the COVID-19 pandemic] because that’s where the business is.”
The business model for the A220 operation is completely different—the aircraft has much higher ownership costs and will fly routes that are much longer. Neeleman pointed out that, as for operating costs, he still regards the A220 as highly efficient. According to his calculations, the aircraft burns less fuel per hour than the E190. On the long-range missions on which Breeze plans to use them, the A220’s trip costs will be 70% below that of a widebody and 25-30% below those of an A321LR.
Neeleman is still talking to Airbus about adding auxiliary fuel tanks to the aircraft to stretch its range to 4,000 nm—an increase of around 600 nm over the current official maximum design range. Possible markets for the aircraft are very long thin routes from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii, deep into South America and transatlantic markets. Neeleman said one option was to fly some secondary markets from Brazil to Orlando, Florida in cooperation with Azul.
Neeleman also hinted that Breeze could install a premium cabin on the A220s similar to the Mint offering on JetBlue. That cabin would get a 2-2 configuration, which means that per row the airline would only lose one seat per row in the premium class compared to economy. While the A220s will have broadband connectivity, that is not planned for the Embraer operation because planned flights will be too short to justify the investment.
Related Content
