Breeze Airways Finding Success, Planning to Grow in Huntsville

More than 30,000 passengers have flown out of Huntsville on Breeze Airways so far this year, according to the airline.

The low-cost carrier – which celebrated its second anniversary of service at Huntsville International earlier this month – has had more than 300 flights out of the airport so far this year, airline spokesman Ryne Williams said.

The airline has seven departures a week including nonstop flights to Las Vegas on Wednesday and Sundays, to Orlando on Mondays and Fridays and Tampa on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

“Tampa changes from three times weekly for the summer to twice weekly in August,” Williams said.

Breeze Airways has been offering one-way fares as low as $55 to Orlando and $89 to Las Vegas as part of its “Stretch It Out” campaign.

A search on websites on Monday had flights from Huntsville to Orlando on American Airlines at between $300 and $400, the cheapest from United was listed at $215. A one-stop flight from Delta was $243.

As of Monday, Breeze’s website listed a fare as low as $73 one-way to Tampa, but the amount of the fares depended on the day of the flight.

Orlando is the second most popular destination out of Huntsville International, Tampa sixth and Las Vegas 10th according to the airport’s most recent statistics.

“Since we started serving Huntsville in July of 2021, Breeze has offered nonstop flights to underserved,” Breeze Airways President Tom Doxey said. “As we continue to grow, we’re also looking for other great opportunities to expand from Huntsville.”

Huntsville International CEO Butch Roberts said the airport has been in discussions with Breeze about adding more routes.

“But they will grow by adding more service to their current destinations first,” he said. “As Breeze takes delivery of the longer-range Airbus A220s coming out of Mobile, perhaps there will be more opportunities to fly nonstop to the west coast.”

According to Huntsville International Airport statistics, Breeze filled 88.5% of its available seats in June. According to Roberts, that’s the highest for any airline at the airport.

“To put this in context, 80% is considered a favorable load factor, and legacy carrier Delta had an 87.4% load factor in the same time period,” he said. “This says to us that the customer Breeze is targeting and the product they are offering is well received.”

Roberts said the benefit of having Breeze in Huntsville “is that they provide nonstop service that we didn’t have and competitive airfares that cater to the leisure traveler with money to spend.”

According to the airport website, the airport offers 13 nonstop flights from legacy carriers American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta, along with Silver Airways and Breeze.

“(Passengers) have got a better option at HSV than before Breeze came,” he said. “Our hope is that this competition will drive prices for other airline fares down.”

Through May, more than 558,000 passengers have passed through the Huntsville airport, which is about a 22% increase over 2022. That puts Huntsville on pace for a record year in air travel.

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