Breeze Airways has announced that it will suspend its transcontinental service between Westchester, New York, and Los Angeles. The announcement comes less than six months after the airline began the service, which was the debut of the carrier's cross-country flights.

The airline said it made the decision as it continues to modify its network. It also comes as the carrier plans to keep some aircraft overnight at some airports that are not bases.

A "difficult decision"

Breeze will cease flights from Westchester County Airport (HPN) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at the end of this month, citing capacity issues at the New York airport. Delays from the flight length and crew duty times were also contributing factors. The decision now leaves HPN without any transcontinental flights.

Breeze Airways Airbus A220 taxiing
Photo: Breeze Airways

A spokesperson for the airline confirmed the suspension in a statement to Ishrion Aviation.

”We just made the difficult decision this week to suspend service between HPN and LAX, starting May 1. HPN is capacity controlled and has limited slot times. With the early morning slots we have, the route required 7 crews to operate it. Then, given the length of the flight, any delays were further impacted by crew duty times. Breeze keeps fares low through efficiency and by using our planes productively. Given that, we've decided to utilize that plane on other routes in the network.”

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Transcontinental routes that failed

Breeze recently changed the return flight from Los Angeles to Westchester to a redeye flight, departing LAX at night and arriving at HPN in the early morning. The change was due to Westchester Airport's hourly limitations on the number of flights and travelers passing through the airport.

The Airbus A220 operates the route. When the flights end, the airline said its crew and the aircraft would be used on other routes within its network. Passengers who are impacted will be offered a full refund or will have the choice to be rebooked on flights from Hartford, Connecticut, and Los Angeles, according to Ishrion Aviation. The Hartford to Los Angeles route is not nonstop, however. The carrier operates the route with a stop in between, but passengers do not need to change planes.

Breeze Airways A220-300
Photo: Airbus

Breeze announced the HPN to LAX route last April but did not inaugurate the service until November. The announcement also included flights to San Francisco and Las Vegas, but they were unsuccessful. The carrier canceled the San Francisco route before it began, while the Las Vegas route operated for a month.

Overnighting aircraft

With the plan to use its aircraft productively, Breeze will change the schedule of some existing routes to accommodate new locations where its aircraft can remain overnight. The carrier currently operates a network that ensures its planes can stay overnight at one of its seven bases in Tampa, Charleston, New Orleans, Norfolk, Hartford, Provo, and Providence. In the coming weeks, the airline will start to keep aircraft overnight in Orlando (MCO). Some aircraft will also be temporarily kept overnight in Jacksonville (JAX), despite MCO and JAX not being crew bases.

The change has impacted some travelers who have already booked flights to and from Orlando. Last week, the carrier notified passengers with booked itineraries from Orange County to Orlando that the departure time of the returning flight would be moved much earlier from 16:50 to 8:00.

"We need to change our booking and route schedule periodically," the airline said. "We realize that these changes are not expected, and we apologize."

Source: Ishrion Aviation