It’s a ‘Breeze’ to Travel from Huntsville to New Orleans and Tampa

Get off your couches and pack your bags because nonstop flying from Huntsville is a “Breeze.”

Breeze Airways, that is.

The carrier is launching its “Low Fare, High Flex” program with an inaugural nonstop flight Thursday from Huntsville International Airport to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. 

And New Orleans is just the start.  Breeze is scheduled to begin flights to Tampa on July 22.

Huntsville is one of 16 airports in which Breeze chose to launch its new “Seriously Nice” airline, bypassing hubs such as Atlanta and Nashville with point-to-point flights to and from smaller secondary airports, resulting in shorter travel times.

According to the International Air Transport Association, one of the many hits airlines took due to COVID-19 in 2020, was a significant loss in city-pair connectivity, falling 33% when compared to the same time in 2019. It has been suggested that restoring air transport connectivity will be critical to the industry’s economic recovery.

Breeze Airways founder and CEO David Neeleman is taking on the connectivity issue with a business model that he began before the pandemic. He said it is designed to stimulate travel and “get people off their couches” so they can go see and do things without having to drive to Nashville to catch an affordable flight. 

“We saw this trend in airline costs that were forcing cities like Huntsville to fly into hubs like Atlanta, in order to go anywhere,” said Neeleman. “We saw an opportunity where we could offer service using a plane that had low capital costs, which translates to low trip costs, and with these low trip costs, then we could go into markets and offer a much lower fare.

“But, more importantly, we saw a market where people could fly to New Orleans, Tampa, or Charleston, which are all desirable destinations for people living in northern Alabama, and get there in an hour and ten minutes, rather than driving for 10 hours.”

Neeleman, who is also the founder of JetBlue, and his wife Eva Applegate Neeleman, an “Army brat” who grew up in Huntsville, will be in town for Thursday’s inaugural flight. He said they chose Huntsville as a launch point for Breeze Airways while here on a family visit several months ago.

“What impressed me about Huntsville is how much economic vitality there is here with all the growth,” Neeleman said. “If Huntsville supports us with weekend trips to great places like New Orleans, Charleston, and Tampa, we will add more services and more destinations.” 

Undoubtedly, 2020 will go down in history as the worst year in history for airlines with a net loss of $118 billion in 2020, with those losses continuing into 2021. As a result, many airlines are facing pressure to reduce operating costs, but again – Neeleman only saw opportunities.

“If you start with a clean white sheet of paper and say ‘OK, what can we do to keep our costs low?”, we can use technology to start from scratch,” said Neeleman. “Because of COVID, the price of airplanes dropped a lot in value, so we were able to pick up a bunch of planes for a really low price; and we were able to get parts and spare engines … that helped a lot.

“We have a really smart team of people creating a market with a plane that has lower trip costs but still has a low seat cost, so we can offer low fares for that market. It’s just a different way of attacking the market.”

And Huntsville is one its beneficiaries.

“There is a ton of pent-up demand and a lot of people who want to get out and see things,” said Neeleman. “They are tired of being stuck in their homes and thank goodness for these vaccines, people can feel more comfortable about doing so.”

In talking about the airline industry overall, Neeleman said the airline business still faces challenges in getting going again.

“Once you shut that monster down, there are service issues to be dealt with; and labor issues, which is really tough …. and a lot of the airlines rely on contracted labor for fueling and other services at airports,” he said. “When you walk through airports all over the country today, a lot of the restaurants are closed down because they can’t hire anyone to work them.

And then, he said, there is the retraining of pilots.

“I saw a statistic the other day that said 5,400 pilots took early retirement when COVID hit,” he said. “The airlines were prepared for COVID to go on for years, and that may be true for business travel, but they have been able to stimulate travel in other areas.

“Now you have three or four aircraft types and pilots working on a seniority basis. Someone retires from one fleet, and someone else must come to over from another fleet. They must be retrained, so it can be a very difficult logistical challenge just to restart everything. When you have had a lot of early retirement, it causes a shift in the workforce.”

Huntsville joins nine other cities that will be initiating from Tampa including Charleston, S.C.; Louisville; Tulsa; Norfolk, Va.; Bentonville/Fayetteville, Ark.; Akron/Canton, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Columbus, Ohio; and Richmond, Va.

With seamless booking, no change or cancellation fees, up to 24 months of reusable flight credit, and customized flight features, Breeze said its mission is to make the world of travel simple, affordable, and convenient, using technology, ingenuity, and kindness to improve the travel experience.