Summary
- New Orleans has been a solid destination for Breeze Airways since the airline’s start during the pandemic. Breeze has designated it as a base of operations.
- Despite only owning 1.6% of the passenger market share in February 2024 in New Orleans, Breeze’s business model of flying to secondary markets gives the airline a special niche not currently offered by any other airline at the airport.
- Breeze is always offering new routes from New Orleans, however, since the airline’s inception their flights to Fayetteville, Louisville, Richmond, and Norfolk have always been offered.
Table of Contents
Breeze Airways is becoming a growing airline in the United States. Born during the 2020 pandemic, the airline capitalized on an underserved airline market at the time to gain a foothold amongst American air carriers.
New Orleans has been a city that Breeze started operating out of, from the start. The airline announced that New Orleans will be a base of operations. Despite being a relatively major destination trafficked by nearly all major airlines, Breeze has carved out a niche in the city leaving it virtually untouched by competing airlines.
As of May 2024, Breeze is offering 10 routes utilizing Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
In this guide, we cover the history of Breeze’s start in New Orleans as well as provide you with information about several of the routes being offered from this airport.
History of Breeze Airways in New Orleans
Getting Started During a Pandemic
Breeze Airways is a relatively new airline that started its business during the COVID-19 pandemic when air travel was at its all-time low in the United States.
They seized the opportunity to capture the small market share of those passengers who were still willing to fly since most airlines weren’t flying daily flights due to the lack of nationwide demand.
With the reduction of air travel, secondary markets suffered even more greatly since the major airlines were only keeping routes in major cities alive since they had more demand. That fit right into Breeze’s favor and the airline took advantage of that market gap.
In May 2021, Breeze Airways and JetBlue founder David Neeleman, Louisiana Governor John Edwards along with officials from the city of New Orleans announced that Breeze Airways will begin service from New Orleans offering flights to 10 destinations in July of that year.
Breeze then designated Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport as an operation base for the airline.
First Few Route Announcements
The first ten cities that Breeze said they would offer service to from New Orleans were: Fayetteville, Huntsville, Louisville, Norfolk, Oklahoma, Richmond, Tulsa, and Columbus
On July 21, 2021, Breeze completed its first flight into Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport when a flight from Huntsville touched down.
In 2022, Breeze Airways released its first service expansion across the entire airline for the summer months. Only one route was added out of New Orleans which was a twice-a-week flight to Jacksonville, Florida beginning in May 2022.
Growing a National Footprint in New Orleans
Later in 2022, Breeze announced a flight from New Orleans to Raleigh Durham, North Carolina. This flight was going to be a 4-day-a-week offering to begin in February 2023.
Around the same time, in celebration of Madris Gras, Breeze was also going to offer flights to New Orleans from Pittsburgh beginning on February 3rd, 2023. It offered a promotion of a $79 one-way seat to the Voodoo City.
In Summer 2023, the airline brought on more flights to New Orleans. Breeze launched its first route westward to Los Angeles Breeze brought a westward expansion to Los Angeles, California as well as a route to Hartford, Connecticut, the most northerly route offered from New Orleans at the time.
Continue Expansion into Florida
In July 2023, more routes were added from New Orleans but this time to vacation destinations in Florida. The airline announced nonstop flights to Orlando and Fort Myers during the Fall of 2023.
Breeze Airways Routes Offered at New Orleans
Breeze Airways has built its business model on offering flights to underserved destinations throughout the United States. It has a very similar strategy to that of Allegiant Air however with a more upscale business product.
In its short history in New Orleans, the airline has offered quite a litany of different routes. Only a few have stuck through inception. Only flights to Fayetteville, Louisville, Richmond, and Norfolk have been consistently offered since the start.
These routes fit right into Breeze’s business model since they are not considered highly demanded destinations by any stretch of the imagination.
Other routes have come and gone depending on seasonality. Much of the flights to New Orleans are largely associated with the travel demand to New Orleans during the warmer months and Madris Gras season.
See below to see all the flights Breeze Airways is currently offering from New Orleans
| Destination City | Destination Airport | Offering | Aircraft Type |
| Fayetteville | Northwest Arkansas National Airport | Seasonal | Airbus A220-300 |
| Louisville | Louisville International Airport | Year Round | Embraer 190, Embraer 195 |
| Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh International Airport | Year Round | Embraer 190, Embraer 195 |
| Richmond | Richmond International Airport | Year Round | Embraer 190 |
| Norfolk | Norfolk International Airport | Year Round | Embraer 190, Embraer 195 |
| Raleigh-Durham | Raleigh-Durham International Airport | Year Round | Embraer 190, Embraer 195 |
| Charleston | Charleston International Airport | Year Round | Embraer 190, Embraer 195 |
| Jacksonville | Jacksonville International Airport | Year Round | Embraer 190, Embraer 195 |
| Orlando | Orlando International Airport | Year Round | Airbus A220-300 |
| Fort Myers | Southwest Florida International Airport | Year Round | Airbus A220-300 |
What Competition Does Breeze Airways Have in New Orleans?
Breeze Airways doesn’t face much direct route competition for flights out of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. There are only two routes that are shared between mutual airlines. Breeze, Southwest Airlines, and Frontier have year-round flights to Orlando.
Also, Frontier and Breeze both share a route to Raleigh Durham however, Frontier’s offers that flight as a seasonal option.
Southwest Airlines dominates that market share out of New Orleans, owning 34% of the business at the airport in February 2024. Breeze Airways’ total passenger traffic accounts for 1% of the total market share in the same month.
Thanks to Breeze’s unique business model of flying to secondary destinations, the airline will have a niche in New Orleans.
If Allegiant Air or Avelo Airlines decides to begin using New Orleans, you can then expect Breeze to begin to feel a little bit of heat from the added competition at the airport.
What Aircraft Does Breeze Airways Use for Flights From New Orleans?
When using Breeze for flights to and from New Orleans, you can expect to fly on any of Breeze’s three aircraft types. Currently, there are three airframes that the airline uses for passenger service: the Embraer 190, Embraer 195, and Airbus A220.
If you would like to learn more in-depth about Breeze’s aircraft fleet, check out our guide here.
Embraer 190
The Embraer 190 made up the bulk of Breeze’s fleet during the airline’s early days. It was a capable regional aircraft type aircraft capable of accommodating close to a little more than 100 passengers.
Breeze uses this aircraft for a bulk of its flights from New Orleans. However, due to its age, and Breeze’s commitment to the Airbus A220, expect this aircraft to begin being phased out in the next few years.
Embraer 195
Breeze’s Embraer 195 is a larger, although less popular version of the Embraer 195. No other American air carrier currently uses the Embraer 195 outside of Breeze Airways. The airline currently owns and operates 7 of these aircraft types.
Due to its smaller number, the odds are you will likely either be flying on the Embraer 190 or Airbus A220 from New Orleans.
Airbus A220
The Airbus A220 is the future of the Breeze Airways fleet with the airline recently announcing its desire to order more of the aircraft the type.
Despite being closer to regional-type aircraft in terms of passenger capacity, the aircraft is a powerhouse in terms of operating efficiency. With fuel-efficient engines, the Airbus A220 is capable of flying cross country, unlike the Embraer E-Jets.
Breeze will typically use this plane on highly demanded routes or flights outside the range of their Embraer aircraft.
Final Thoughts About Breeze Airways Service
Breeze Airways offering flights from New Orleans is a huge win for everyone. With the airline carving out a niche of operating at secondary airports throughout the United States, at the moment it doesn’t have much threat at the airport from competing airlines.
Now these secondary markets have a direct flight option to a major U.S. city without having to waste time and money connecting to a local major airport and then flying to New Orleans.
New Orleans is a very lucrative destination to fly to and from. With Madi Gras occurring in February, you can always expect a bump in traffic year in and year out around this time. Also, simply being known as a “party city” with fair weather year round (besides hurricane season) there will always be a demand for flights into New Orleans.
As long as airlines that operate with a similar business model as Breeze that fly to secondary markets like Allegiant Air and Avelo Air don’t decide to begin offering service from New Orleans, expect Breeze to have a pretty successful stint at the airport as the airline continues to grow.
Sources
https://www.ajot.com/news/breeze-airways-launches-at-msy
https://onemileatatime.com/news/breeze-airways-expansion
https://thepointsguy.com/news/breeze-airways-nonstop-flights-raleigh-durham-rdu
https://flymsy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Airline-Statistics-February-2024.pdf
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