When JetBlue and American Airlines entered the Vero Beach market with direct flights to New York City, Boston and Charlotte, N.C., many aviation observers believed that Breeze Airways would have to retreat in the face of such formidable competition from more established airlines.
No way, said David Neeleman, founder and CEO of Breeze, the upstart airline that had put Vero Beach on the map a couple of years earlier by restoring regular passenger service.
“We’re doubling down,” Neeleman said in an exclusive interview with 32963 shortly after JetBlue launched its Vero operation last December, asserting that his new airline was exploring even more routes connecting Vero Beach to major metro areas in the Northeast.
Last week, Neeleman made good on that promise in spades when Breeze started four new routes out of the ever more bustling Vero Beach Regional Airport, adding flights to Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Trenton-Mercer Regional Airport and Atlantic City in New Jersey.
Breeze was already flying to the tristate megalopolis around New York City with flights from Vero Beach to Islip, Long Island; White Plains in Westchester County just north of the city; and Hartford and New Haven on the Connecticut side. But Neeleman said he was also looking at smaller regional airports on the New Jersey side of the NYC tristate area. The new flights to Trenton and Atlantic City align with that focus. Both airports are easily reachable from most of the New Jersey suburbs of New York City in an hour or less.
Meanwhile, ironically, JetBlue has shut down its short-lived Vero Beach-New York City route, leaving only its Boston connection. Neeleman, who founded JetBlue and took it public before leaving for other airline ventures, predicted last winter that JetBlue’s New York route might have trouble filling up planes because “JFK is a terrible airport – people hate having to go there.”
With the addition of the new routes, Breeze now offers residents of Vero Beach and surrounding areas direct flights to all major metro areas in the Northeast – to Boston through flights to Providence and Bradley Feld between Hartford, Conn., and Springfield, Mass.; to New York City through six different airfields in surrounding areas; to Philadelphia through Trenton; to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with flights to Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Breeze also flies out of Vero Beach to a new major hub of its own in Raleigh, N.C., where travelers can connect to flights all over the country, including the West Coast. The airline is headquartered in Provo, Utah.
When flights resume to Stewart Field-Newburgh northwest of New York City in season, Breeze will serve a total of 12 destinations out of Vero Beach. Neeleman said the local market has been “very good” to the new airline.
The new flights to Trenton (just northeast of Philadelphia) will be twice weekly, Wednesdays and Saturdays, changing to Thursdays and Sundays in 2027. The Baltimore flights are scheduled three times a week, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, while the Atlantic City flights will leave twice weekly, Mondays and Fridays. The Pittsburgh connection will also fly twice weekly, Wednesdays and Sundays.
And there will be more room on all those planes. Breeze recently upgraded its fleet, switching to the European-made Airbus 200 from the smaller Brazilian-made Embraer jets it started with.
Breeze promotes itself as a low-budget airline and touts promotional fares as low as $41 on its website, but just like all other airlines, it prices its tickets based on the demand for seats. The lowest fares available in the first week to Atlantic City were advertised at $104, and some of the other new flights appeared to be even more in demand, with prices in the $300-$400 range, similar to other carriers. Ticket prices can change throughout the day, depending on demand for particular flights.
The airline offers “nice” seats, equivalent to economy on other carriers, “nicer” seats like premium economy, and “nicest” seats similar to first- or business class on other lines.
A Breeze supervisor at the airport said the first flights to the new destinations last week came off without a hitch.
“A lot of people seemed to be going to weddings, football games, and other events, and they were glad that we’re now going to where they needed to go,” she said. She added the flights were reasonably well occupied, although “we always could have had a few more people.”
Brandon Dambeck, the new director of Vero Beach Regional Airport, which recently completed a modest upgrade to waiting areas, restrooms and baggage claim facilities, said: “We’re excited to see additional destinations being introduced to the Vero Beach market, providing our community with even more options and connectivity.
“As air service continues to grow, the airport is closely monitoring flight activity and passenger volumes to ensure the terminal continues to have the appropriate life-safety capacity to support these operations,” said Dambeck, who took over the top job at the airport in July after the retirement of long-time airport director Todd Scher.
