Breeze Airways has been one of the most notable airline startups to take to the skies in 2021. With serial entrepreneur David Neeleman as its founder and CEO, the US-based carrier has been operational for around seven months. Interestingly, Neeleman doesn't just see Breeze as an airline, but rather as a wider technology company that flies aircraft.

A tech company that flies airplanes

Breeze Airways is the fifth airline to have been founded by entrepreneur David Neeleman. He is someone who has been in the business for a long time, with JetBlue, one of his most famous creations, coming into existence over two decades ago. A lot has changed since then. Speaking exclusively at Simple Flying's Future Flying Forum, he explained:

"When I started JetBlue, it was a customer service company that just happened to fly airplanes. But technology has come so far, and people don't really want to stand in line and get a smile at an airport: they'd rather just check in themselves."

With these changes in mind, Neeleman has built Breeze Airways differently. He adds:

"Today, when you order an Uber, you necessarily don't want to talk to anyone. When you order a package from Amazon you don't want to talk to anyone. And so now we're just a technology company that happens to fly airplanes."

David Neeleman, Breeze Airways, Future Flying Forum
David Neeleman has also founded a Brazilian airline, namely Azul. Photo: Getty Images

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Positive impact on customer service

In essence, Breeze is designed to allow passengers to have more autonomy over their bookings, and the ability to make changes themselves at the touch of a button. One area where this has had a significant impact is in the domain of customer service. Breeze has been able to cut waiting times by increasing app functionality, as Neeleman explains:

"The waits at call centers for big lines are just horrendous: two to four to six hours to make a change of a reservation. We have full functionality on the app, and we can do all that. But if somebody really wants to talk to us, they can get hold of us via chat, and speak to us that way. And if they get really frustrated, we'll call them."

Breeze presently flies Embraer E-Jets, but will soon add Airbus A220s to its fleet. Photo: Breeze Airways

However, the need to call customers directly rarely arises. Neeleman adds that:

"We've probably had 200,000 interactions so far with customers, and I think we've made 73 outbound calls. The average wait time is less than eight minutes to get an issue resolved, so it's another way to use technology to deal with an issue.

Big fleet plans

The nature of the aircraft that Breeze's well-connected customers fly on will alter in the coming years. At present, data from ch-aviation.com shows that the airline flies a small fleet of 10 Embraer 190s and three Embraer 195s. However, as Simple Flying reported earlier this month, the carrier is planning to introduce the Airbus A220 in Q2 of 2022.

Breeze has big plans for the A220, including auxiliary fuel tanks and quick-change cabins. It has 80 on order, and it will be exciting to see how they optimize Breeze's operations.

Have you flown with Breeze Airways yet? How did the experience compare to other US carriers? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.