JetBlue Founder Launching ‘Breeze Airways’ By End Of Year

It’s been nearly a year since I first wrote about the airline known as Moxy. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry, it was only a place holder as Marriott already owns that brand name for their hotels.

Today, it was announced that Moxy will now be known as Breeze Airways.

WHO IS BREEZE AIRWAYS?

Breeze Airways is an US airline start-up founded by serial entrepreneur David Neeleman with an initial capital of $100 million.

Again, you may not be familiar with Mr. Neeleman but you may be familiar with his products, so here’s a quick summary…

• 1984-1993, Neeleman Co-founded Morris Air & served as President
• 1993 Morris Air is acquired by Southwest Airlines for $130 million
• 1996 Neeleman founded WestJet (Canada’s second largest airline)
• 1998 Neeleman founded JetBlue and served as CEO
• 2008 Neeleman launched Azul Airlines (currently Brazil’s 3rd largest airline)
• 2015 Neeleman acquired 61% of TAP Air Portugal
• 2018 Neeleman announced plans for new US airline called Moxy (now called Breeze)

In other words, he started 4 successful airlines in 35 years and has a majority stake in one of the best European carriers. Personally, I think that’s a pretty solid resumé.

David Neeleman’s fifth startup, Breeze Airways, is launching with the business model of domestic point-to-point flights between underserved US markets utilizinga fleet of 60 Airbus A220-300s.

In short, they plan to fly from secondary airports instead of hubs. For example, Los Angeles (Burbank, Ontario, Orange County), San Francisco (Oakland and San Jose), New York (Stewart), D.C. (Baltimore), and even my hometown Cleveland (Burke Lakefront Airport), etc.

TWO MODELS

From a business perspective, Neeleman’s airline is intriguing as he is pursuing two models at once.

While the long term plan is for Breeze Airways to fly the A220s once they start to be delivered in April 2021, they have plans to launch before that.

So, Breeze Airways plans to lease up to 30 Embraer 195s from Azul, which is another one of Neeleman’s airlines, which would allow the airline to launch in 2020. Azul is actually looking to get rid of those planes anyway as they take delivery of new Embraer 195-E2 jets so this seems to be the perfect equation.

Presumably the Embraer 195s would only stay in Breeze Airways’ fleet for so long, and eventually the airline would exclusively fly A220s.

FINAL STAMP

I’m always excited when I see new airlines on the horizon. As with any business, I trust there will be some bumps along the road but I wouldn’t bet against Neeleman.

In fact, I’ll go a bit further and pitch my theory. Neeleman is putting together a “super airline.” Think about it…

• He already owns Azul in Brazil and can connect to any country in South America (or even Central America)
• He owns TAP Portugal that connects around the world (including the USA)
• Now he owns Breeze in the USA

Breeze plans to use Airbus A220 jets which are fuel-efficient and have a range that can easily be utilized on long-haul flights between the US and Europe and the US and South America. A huge focus for Breeze (USA) could be northern Brazil where Brazil’s Azul would assist in feeding passengers to Breeze, essentially, creating a network that could rival larger alliances.

Mark my words…this development has the potential to change the entire airline industry.

What do you make of this new airline?