Breeze Airways is one of the newest carriers on the north American aviation scene. The carrier was founded by the same person who founded JetBlue, Azul and Westjet and is now trying to make a name for itself in the US market. However to bring a real fight to the bigger players, the airline has to substantially increase its fleet size and it’s doing just that. Breeze Airways has just further increased its standing order with Airbus for the A220. Let’s take a closer look at all the details.
In this post:
- Breeze Expands Its Airbus A220 Order
- The Aircraft Cabin Configuration
- Fleet Evolution and Future Expansions
- Sign up to my newsletter
Breeze Expands Its Airbus A220 Order
Since its launch breeze airways has opted to operate an all narrow body, high efficiency, fleet of planes for all its operations. Although it currently also operates Embraer produced planes the go aircraft for future growth is without a doubt the Airbus A220.
Prior to the order expansion Breeze Airways had a standing order with Airbus for 80 planes. That jumped up to 90 units with the airline ordering further 10 aircraft from the European manufacturer.
All planes on order of the A220-300 variant. That is the larger of the two, the formerly know CS300. This variant is capable of seating on a full load approximately 150 passengers.
The Aircraft Cabin Configuration
The cabin configuration won’t differ from that seen on all other already delivered Airbus A220-300s. That means that the aircraft will be set up with either:
| Configuration | Business Class | Economy Class |
|---|---|---|
| Config 1 | 36 seats in a 2-2 layout | 90 seats in a 2-3 layout |
| Config 2 | 12 seats in a 2-2 layout | 125 seats in a 2-3 layout |
The first of the two is clearly a configuration capable of covering larger distances. Simply because it has less passengers onboard with a more premium heavy layout.
Fleet Evolution and Future Expansions
As mentioned Breeze Airways currently operates a mixed manufacturer fleet. Out of the 40 units that currently make up the fleet:
- 22 are Airbus A220-300
- 18 are Embraer E175
However the plan is for the E175s to be phased out by the end of 2024, replacing them with other Airbus A220s. This move will drastically reduce fleet complexity and costs for the airline. Once the one type fleet goal is achieved Breeze will gradually expand bringing in more planes to fuel its growing operations.
I’m quite intrigued to see what Breeze will do with its fleet in the future. The CEO David Neeleman occasionally alluded to the ambition to operate transatlantic eventually. Will it ever be possible to see a tiny A220 make the trips maybe with an even lighter cabin capacity? Hypothetically the aircraft has the range to connect New York to London.