CEO of Breeze Airways David Neeleman has added some color to the mission profiles of his incoming fleet of A220 aircraft. These planes will fly longer segments than the Embraer jets, targeting flights of three hours or more and averaging closer to four. This, he says, will make a strong business case for the plane’s large premium cabin, as will his plan to keep the cost of upgrading at a sensible level.
A220s for longer flying
Breeze welcomed its first A220 at the end of October and will, eventually, fly a fleet of 80 of the type. Speaking to Simple Flying at our recent Future Flying Forum event, CEO of the airline David Neeleman added some color to the mission profiles of these new jets. He said,
“These 220s are going to fly decidedly more long-haul flights. Here today, our average flights are maybe an hour and 15 to an hour and 20 minutes. These planes will fly three plus hours, maybe even an average of closer to four hours.”
Putting the A220s onto longer routes will make sense of the large premium cabin Breeze has showcased on board. This clever cabin has been described by Neeleman as the airline’s playspace, able to be reconfigured in a matter of days from all economy to domestic first to lie flat seating, as the mission requires. Flying more than three hours will encourage these seats to be filled, as will Neeleman’s pricing strategy. He said,
“We figured as long as people are flying that distance, they're more apt to want to upgrade. To cover the real estate that it covers, we have to charge about 40% more for a ticket than what we're charging. So if we have a transcon ticket that's $150, will someone pay $60 to go in first class? It's an experiment.”
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Business traveler targets?
With a potentially larger and more accessible premium cabin, is this a signal that Breeze is going after more business travelers in future? Neeleman says not, and was enthusiastic about the potential for getting the leisure market to upgrade to a more comfortable experience. He said,
“Definitely leisure market. Usually to upgrade it’s like five times the amount of flying; if it's $1,000, it’s $5,000, or if it's $500, it’s $2,500. What we're saying is that maybe with the lie flat or whatever the real estate is, it may be two times. So if you're spending $250, would you spend $500? I think a lot of people would spend that extra money to make travelling more convenient, more fun, more enjoyable. I just think a lot of people will do it.”
Breeze intends to start flying its A220s around the second quarter of 2022. At present, the launch routes are being kept quite close to its chest, but based on Neeleman’s comments, we can expect some longer routes to be in there. In particular, it would be expected that he would want to connect his two hubs at Salt Lake City and Virginia to each other, but we will have to wait and see.