Breeze Airways cuts 1 route, shuffles 14 others in big network update

New startup carrier Breeze Airways is making some big adjustments to its fledgling network.

As part of its recent schedule extension, Breeze is shuffling its route map with a handful of route changes and notable frequency changes, as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by the carrier.

To start, the airline is cutting the Tampa (TPA) to Columbus (CMH) route, which will end on April 30. Breeze told TPG that service will be "suspended," but there's no planned restart date.

Furthermore, the airline is cutting a good chunk of service on two other routes, listed below. These flights are going from year-round to seasonal service:

• New Orleans (MSY) — Akron/Canton (CAK)
• New Orleans (MSY) — Columbus (CMH)

Moving forward, these routes will only operate from October through the New Years holiday, and between February and April, a carrier spokesperson confirmed to TPG.

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In addition to the route cut and seasonal shifts, Breeze is making many more adjustments to other flights, all of which you'll find listed below.

This includes four routes getting upgraded to daily service, and three going from 2x to 4x weekly flights. Breeze is also trimming the frequencies of five routes as part of this latest schedule adjustment.

Along with the route adjustments, the airline is extending its booking window until Sept. 6, 2022, giving travelers more options to begin locking in summer vacations.

Perhaps the biggest news wrapped up in the schedule extension is that Breeze will commence Airbus A220 operations on May 4. The airline filed the first of 17 Airbus A220 routes last week.

The flyer-friendly Airbus A220 will become the backbone of Breeze's fleet, as the airline plans to take delivery of 80 of these planes — adding one A220 each month for the next six and a half years.

The A220 isn't just a new plane for Breeze. It'll also be installed with a new cabin, dubbed the "Nicest" first-class product, to the skies. Arranged in a 2-2 configuration, the 36 first-class recliners span nine rows in what's easily one of the most premium domestic configurations out there.

Breeze Airways commenced operations in May 2021 with a fleet of Embraer 190 and 195 aircraft. The airline was founded by serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman, who's perhaps best known in the U.S. for starting JetBlue. Neeleman has also been involved in numerous other airlines worldwide, including Azul in Brazil and WestJet in Canada.

The carrier started with 39 routes between 16 midsized markets, focused on cities that the airline calculated are too small for major carriers to serve beyond flights to their hubs.

Essentially, the airline is trying to run a low-cost, nimble operation connecting city pairs that might not be top of mind. With a bit of trial and error, some routes inevitably won’t stick, leading to the latest round of cancellations and adjustments from Breeze.

In November 2021, the airline filed its first big network adjustments as part of its spring booking window extension. Those cuts included four routes and a handful of frequency changes, on a smaller scale compared to what the airline is doing now to its summer schedule.

Breeze isn’t the only new airline that launched last year — there’s also Avelo Airlines, based in both Burbank, California, and New Haven, Connecticut, as well as Aha!, the latest venture from longtime operator ExpressJet. Of the three new entrants, Avelo has commanded most of the network-related headlines, having cut multiple cities and routes, some even before service began.

While the airlines work to improve their bottom line, the losers are the cities that'll no longer get point-to-point nonstop service on a handful of routes.