Breeze Airways is an airline that needs no introduction. Ever since its launch in mid-2021, Breeze has secured its foothold on point-to-point leisure routes all across the United States. Recently, however, in the midst of a major route shakeup, the airline has announced the suspension of quite a few routes. This includes the airline's only transcontinental route from New York, the focus of today's article.

Context

Breeze Airways is a low-cost airline. Generally speaking, when low-cost airlines look at serving bigger cities, they tend to prefer smaller airports or those located further away from the city center. This is because such airports tend to be cheaper to operate at, an oh-so-important factor to consider for airlines wanting to keep their fares low.

Breeze Airways does not serve any of the three New York City-area airports (Newark, LaGuardia, or JFK). Instead, the airline serves Westchester County Airport (HPN), located in White Plains, New York, roughly 40 miles away from the City.

Breeze launched service to HPN in June 2022 and there's quite the story behind why the airline chose this airport over other nearby options like New York Stewart (SWF). David Neeleman, the founder of Breeze Airways, lived near HPN at one point. In fact, Neeleman is the one who brought JetBlue to the airport in 2007 when he was the head of that airline. JetBlue has since become the largest airline in Westchester controlling over 50% of the total market share. 

Owing to JetBlue's success at HPN, Neeleman wanted to try something similar with Breeze Airways.

Breeze Airways expanded quickly at HPN, eventually inaugurating the airport's first-ever transcontinental services to Las Vegas and later Los Angeles. The airline even advertised upcoming service from HPN to San Francisco, however, this route was cut before it even started.

Not only this, but the Las Vegas route ended after just three weeks. This left Los Angeles as the only transcontinental destination served from HPN and was done so by the airline's brand new fleet of Airbus A220-300s. Service to LAX began in November 2022, slightly later than initially expected due to A220 delivery delays. 

Just five months after this route began, Breeze Airways announced its closure on April 30th, 2023.

Why the cut?

Breeze Airways operated the HPN-LAX route in conjunction with its services between Westchester and Charleston, South Carolina. The A220 operating the LAX route would first fly from Charleston to HPN, then from HPN to LAX. That same aircraft would then fly back to HPN before continuing onwards to Charleston.

 This somewhat convoluted routing didn't work well for Breeze's scheduling. Furthermore, the airline noted that it required too many crew and aircraft resources.

Not only that, but HPN is a small airport, too small to handle the number of flights it receives nowadays. The passenger terminal only has six gates, four with actual jetbridges. The waiting area for these gates is essentially one room and anyone who has flown from HPN knows it's not very big. 

Therefore, peak periods at HPN become very congested and often lead to delays. This, combined with the lengthy routing Breeze was operating its LAX aircraft on, contributed to knock-on delays and significantly affected the on-time performance of the LAX and Charleston flights to and from Westchester. This is why the airline has chosen to cut the Los Angeles route, though Charleston service will remain.

What's Next?

With the Los Angeles route being cut, Westchester County Airport will once again lack transcontinental service, though Breeze will continue to serve both LAX and HPN from other cities. It's not just the LAX route that's being cut from HPN, as Breeze will also end service to Sarasota, Florida by the end of May.

Once the HPN-LAX route closes, the nearest Breeze Airways transcontinental route will be approximately 100 miles away, from Windsor Locks/Bradley, Connecticut (BDL) to Las Vegas. Furthermore, the airline also has a route from Syracuse, New York to Las Vegas, however, Syracuse is a good four-hour drive from White Plains.

In addition to the HPN cuts, Breeze announced it will eliminate 24 seasonal routes at the end of Labor Day 2023, although the airline has not officially specified what these routes are.