NEW BUDGET AIRLINE, 5 NONSTOP DESTINATIONS COMING TO S.D.
Breeze to start service in early May with eastern cities not currently served
San Diego International Airport is welcoming a new budget air carrier that will soon be offering nonstop flights to several destinations not currently served locally, spanning states from Ohio and Pennsylvania to Florida.
Breeze Airways, a relatively new airline started in 2021 by David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue, announced Tuesday it is making its debut in late April in San Diego where it will launch nonstop service to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., followed in quick succession by Jacksonville, Fla.; Norfolk, Va.; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Pittsburgh, Pa.
While none of the destinations are currently served by any of the airlines operating out of San Diego International Airport, Southwest Airlines will be offering a single nonstop flight weekly to Pittsburgh this summer between June and August. And it isn’t as though San Diego hasn’t had prior service to some of these upcoming destinations.
Raleigh, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were previously served by Frontier Airlines, but those flights terminated five to six years ago, according to Hampton Brown, vice president and chief revenue officer for the airport. And Southwest
last provided service to Norfolk in 2021, he said.
Brown said the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority has been courting Breeze for the last couple of years.
“When David Neeleman founded the airline, it was an interesting product because he wanted to link smaller communities with larger cities, and when you look at what’s not served here, they tend to be smaller municipalities, so it fit in with our air service needs,” Brown explained. “Like Jacksonville and Norfolk are smaller but they’re very important to our naval communities, and Raleigh is important for the biomedical companies here, so there are a lot of reasons why it was a good fit for San Diego.”
San Diego is the fifth city in California and the 46th nationwide to join Breeze’s network of nonstop routes. The new flights will be rolled out April 30 to May 3. Two additional destinations — Providence, R.I., and Hartford, Conn. — will be served by direct flights that will make one stop but with no change of planes.
With the addition of San Diego, the airline will have a schedule of 150 year-round and seasonal nonstop routes between 46 cities in 27 states.
In California, Breeze is already operating in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Ana (John Wayne airport), and San Bernardino.
“Breeze’s mission is to see where people are traveling where there aren’t any nonstop opportunities,” said Breeze spokesperson Gareth Edmondson-Jones. “There are a lot of unserved city pairs in the country that have a lot of people flying (between them), so it’s just a matter of where to go first. There’s no reason why San Diego hasn’t been served earlier by Breeze, but there have been a lot of opportunities elsewhere.”
The following are the planned nonstop flights:
• Raleigh-Durham (Thursdays, Sundays and Tuesdays, starting April 30)
• Jacksonville (Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting May 1)
• Norfolk (Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, starting May 1)
• Cincinnati (Thursdays, Sundays and Tuesdays, starting May 2)
• Pittsburgh (Fridays and Mondays, starting May 3)
Breeze, which characterizes itself as a “nice low-cost carrier,” offers three classes of fares, with the pricier tiers including seat assignments and complimentary checked luggage. Breeze does not charge change or cancellation fees, and for flights that customers cancel,
a credit is available for future use during a two-year period. The airline will be offering San Diego’s inaugural flights for as low as $129 one way, as long as travel is booked by Jan. 15.
Depending on demand, Breeze will weigh expanding the frequency of the nonstop routes. There also remains the possibility that some flights could be scrapped if bookings fall short. While not common, it is not unheard of for budget airlines to test new destinations, only to cancel them when enthusiasm for the flights lags.
Breeze, for example, has exited the Oklahoma City and San Antonio markets, following a year or two of low demand, said EdmondsonJones. At the other end of the spectrum, Breeze started service in Charleston, S.C., and Providence two years ago with just three different routes. There are now 20 nonstop destinations available from the two cities, he said.
Brown noted there are nearly 400 passengers already flying roundtrip daily between San Diego and Norfolk.
“Anything has risk but sometimes it’s just a matter of trying something and seeing if it works. But the degree of confidence we have in these flights is higher than what an Oklahoma City or San Antonio route would be.”
Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said Breeze has adopted the model embraced by other low-cost airlines of introducing new flights for just a few days a week, which could have the effect of turning off potential customers.
“If you want to fly on a Tuesday, for example, and Breeze only flies on Wednesdays and Sundays, then it’s of no use to you,” said Harteveldt of Atmospheric Research Group. “So no matter how inexpensive their fares are, you can’t buy what isn’t sold, so that could limit Breeze’s ability to attract and keep passengers.”
Breeze is wise, though, to start its new service in San Diego during the spring and summer months, when leisure travel is at its peak, Harteveldt said. He also noted that Breeze’s aircraft are very “passengerfriendly” with a selection of first class-style seats and other seats with extra legroom.
“They’re trying to do what smart marketing is all about — find an unmet need and fill it,” he said.