Founder of several airlines, businessman David Neeleman confirmed on Friday the name of his new venture, Breeze Airways. The low-cost airline was then known provisionally as Moxy and had ordered 60 Airbus A220 jets that are expected to be delivered from 2021.
Neeleman, however, intends to launch the first Breeze flights later this year and for that the airline is leasing 30 E195 jets from Azul, the Brazilian airline he founded. These aircraft will be delivered in the second quarter of this year and will serve as a support fleet for Airbus planes. Breeze has just submitted an application to obtain an airline operating certificate from the FAA, the US aviation authority.
Brazilian strategy in the US
With Breeze, the businessman intends to repeat the same successful recipe from Azul that was founded in 2008 and today is the third largest Brazilian airline, in addition to being the fastest growing in the market in recent years.
As with Azul, Neeleman’s goal is to create a network of domestic flights that connect small and medium-sized cities without having to go through large hubs. This point-to-point strategy is avoided by major airlines that prefer to concentrate their flights in the largest cities.
For this reason, Breeze will have a fleet with planes with a lower average capacity than other competitors. But the new low-cost also aims to innovate by automating virtually all services in order to reduce costs and offer competitive rates.
Although he is a partner in other companies such as TAP, from Portugal, and founded JetBlue, in which he no longer has a stake, Neeleman has a predilection for launching new and innovative projects. “20 years ago, we brought humanity back to the airline industry with JetBlue,” he said. “Today, we’re excited to introduce plans for ‘the World’s Nicest Airline’.”
