Breeze plots dramatic Providence growth — including future international routes

One of America's newest airlines is marking its third birthday with a big announcement.

Breeze Airways, founded in May 2021, unveiled plans Wednesday to dramatically increase its service over the next half-decade at T.F. Green International Airport (PVD) in Providence.

Already operating up to 132 weekly flights and 18 destinations out of the New England airport, Breeze is plotting as many as 35 destinations over the next five years — and 200 weekly nonstops.

As part of an agreement, Breeze is expected to expand its footprint to three international destinations or U.S. territories, explained the company's founder and CEO, David Neeleman.

"We've been chomping at the bit to do international for a little bit here," Neeleman said in an interview this week with TPG.

By fall, Breeze will have nine operating bases. It'll have three bases in Florida — once its Fort Myers base opens in October — and two in New England, including Providence. The other is at Bradley International Airport (BDL) near Hartford.

But the additional service offerings the Provo, Utah-based carrier is planning out of T.F. Green will far surpass the presence it currently has in any one market. The move will see Breeze base as many as 12 jets in Providence and double its personnel headcount to around 400.

Major providence expansion

What's behind this interest in Providence?

"We always say, if we're going to add a city, we add four or five destinations — and if those fill up, we'll keep adding," Neeleman said. "We see there's a clear path to 35 different places we can fly to [from Providence]. The airport's been supportive, the governor, everyone."

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Indeed, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee joined Breeze executives in Providence to announce the growth plans, including an agreement with the government that will see the carrier operate routes to at least seven cities west of the Mississippi, Neeleman said.

Here's how Breeze's current Providence route map shakes out, as shown by aviation analytics firm Cirium.

"This expansion will bring in more economic activity, more good-paying jobs, more routes, more visitors, and help set Rhode Island up as a true destination state," McKee said in a statement announcing the news.

As part of the agreement, Breeze will also commit to pursuing interline agreements with international carriers over the next three years to help Providence become more of a connecting hub for international traffic, the Rhode Island Airport Corporation said in a statement Wednesday.

International hopes

Once it clears regulatory requirements, where might Breeze fly internationally?

"Anywhere we can draw a seven-hour circle around Providence," Neeleman said, alluding to the range of the Airbus A220. This aircraft, the carrier said earlier this year, will eventually become the sole aircraft in its fleet. The company just took delivery of its 25th A220-300 this week.

"We have a lot of flexibility that we could do: Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, even some places in Central America," Neeleman said. He also noted North Atlantic islands as a possible landing spot — a possible reference to Bermuda or the Azores.

"And maybe even — I guess we could do Iceland or Ireland," Neeleman added.

Financial progress

The announcement follows Breeze recently completing its second straight — and second-ever — profitable month in April, company leaders confirmed to TPG. Neeleman reiterated the company's hopes to be profitable for the full 2024 year "or close to it."

But that "dramatic improvement" he cited also comes amid a challenging landscape reported by several of Breeze's domestic leisure-heavy airline competitors. This is due to stiff competition in popular vacation markets like Orlando, Las Vegas and destinations in Latin America.

It has fueled lackluster quarterly earnings at the likes of Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Spirit and Frontier in recent months — not to mention network shake-ups and other strategy changes at some of those carriers.

How's Breeze faring?

"It's OK. Over 90% of our routes, we don't have any nonstop competition. It doesn't mean we're immune from connecting carriers trying to match our fares, but we're doing good from that perspective," Neeleman, perhaps best known for founding JetBlue, said.

"I think one of the challenges the other guys have is, they've gone bigger with bigger and bigger airplanes to try and force down their seat-mile costs. And the big guys said, 'Well, we can play that game, too," he continued. "They're kind of in a hub war, in a sense, and we just kind of stay out of that. With our lower trip cost airplane that we have we just don't need as much revenue per flight as they do and we can sneak into places and fly places that they can't."

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