Breeze Airways will be the name of the USA’s newest start-up carrier,and the fifth to be launched by JetBlue founder and serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman.
The new name comes after months of speculation about whether Neeleman’s latest airline might be called “Moxy” – the initial code name given to the project as Neeleman began his effort to launch the carrier.
“Moxy was a name that I always liked,” Neeleman said in an interview with TPG. “I actually was going to name JetBlue Moxy years ago, but I didn’t.”
In July 2018, this new airline placed an order for 60 Airbus A220-300s, with deliveries expected to start in 2021. The airline also plans to lease up to 30 Embraer 195s from Azul, which is another one of Neeleman’s airlines, and has been made possible as Azul is looking to get rid of them in favour of new Embraer 195-E2 jets. This would therefore allow the new airline to launch in 2020.
Breeze will target mid-sized US city pairs that don't currently have nonstop services. "Breeze will fly non-stop service between places currently without meaningful or affordable service. I strongly believe that there is still a significant niche in the domestic US airline network. If you’re living in a small city and the only way for you to get to your destination is through a hub it will take you twice as long to get there,” said Neeleman.
To capitalize on that, Breeze said in its initial business plan that it intended to fly to underserved markets from secondary airports in large metro areas. Airports like Providence (PVD), Oakland (OAK), Gary, Indiana (GYY) and Mesa/Phoenix (AZA) are the types of airports that could fit the bill of the latter category, though none have been selected yet.
“There’s just a lot of scraps that the big guys have left,” Neeleman said. “They’ve left a lot of city pairs, they’ve left a lot of other things untouched. I think we can fill that void nicely with the two aircraft types that we have coming.”
Neeleman has touted Breeze as focused on technology that will give customers new ways to customize their flight experience, including legroom, food and prices primarily from a mobile app that’s still under development. He declined to name any of the technology companies Breeze is working with. As far as the passenger experience goes, Breeze Airways plans to be a low cost carrier with a twist. The airline won’t have seatback entertainment but will have streaming entertainment and WiFi. Breeze Airways will have first class, and the type of seats may vary based on route as the airline may offer standard first class seats on some routes and flat bed seats on other routes
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