Breeze Airways is set to receive ten additional Airbus A220-300 aircraft, thereby completing transition to a fleet consisting only of this aircraft type before the end of 2024.
This announcement was made by Breeze Airways’ founder and CEO, David Neeleman, at an online media conference held on February 20, 2024.
The additional ten A220s bring Breeze’s Airbus order book to 90 of the type, 20 of which are already in service as of February 2024.
Neeleman’s goal is to have 32 of the type in operation by the end of 2024, by which time the airline will have fully transitioned its scheduled operations to the A220-300. Neeleman also noted that Breeze Airways will then possess what is possibly the youngest fleet in the world, with an average aircraft age of around two and half years.
However, Breeze will be keeping some of its Embraer E190 and E195s for charter operations until at least 2026. Neeleman mentioned that Breeze has a strong charter business, particularly in serving sports teams throughout the US. In January 2024 alone, Breeze operated around 600 charter flights. Of the Embraer jets, Neeleman declared, “it’s a great plane for charters”.
The Embraer jets, which mostly came from Brazilian airline Azul (also founded and still partly owned by Neeleman), had always been intended to be a stopgap solution allowing Breeze to launch and grow to the point when it could secure enough A220s.
Neeleman stated that NPS scores, which are used for customer satisfaction evaluation, have been a key factor in the decision to move to an all-A220 regular operation. The airline entrepreneur also praised the flexibility that the A220 cabin offers, with the ability to add more premium seats without markedly reducing the overall cabin capacity. Another factor is the aircraft’s range, which creates the possibility of opening up new relatively long routes with efficiency.
The airline entrepreneur also confirmed that, by the end of Q2 2024, the whole A220 fleet will be equipped with inflight internet connectivity.
Once it has received all 90 A220s, Breeze will become the third largest operator of the type in the world.
Neeleman also stated his confidence that, though it may have taken a little longer than anticipated, Breeze Airways should turn over its first profit in 2024.
