Dane County Regional Airport adds Two Direct Flights on Breeze Airways

Nov. 8—The Dane County Regional Airport will add two direct flights to Florida cities next year on the low-cost airline Breeze Airways as the airport looks forward to more expansion and attracting more passengers.

Weekly flights to Tampa and Orlando will begin in February and come about six months after the airport opened its new $85 million south terminal in May.

Travelers who book one of those flights with Breeze by Nov. 14 will have fares starting at $79 for certain days, the airport said in a statement.

"This is just the beginning of what we anticipate will be a successful and popular new airline here at MSN," Airport Director Kim Jones said.

Launched in 2021, Utah-based Breeze has sought to add flights to smaller airports that many large air carriers have abandoned. Along with Madison, Breeze announced an expansion on Wednesday to six other airports, including Burlington International Airport, Evansville Regional Airport in Indiana and Myrtle Beach International Airport.

Like other low-cost airlines, Breeze has cheaper fares but charges for things such as luggage, seat selection and snacks.

Three gates were added in May with the opening of the Dane County airport's new south terminal. Three more older gates will be brought back online by February, said Michael Riechers, a spokesperson for the airport.

Demolition of the former south terminal, the other key part of the airport's redevelopment, was completed in about 10 days earlier this year, Riechers said.

The airport's ultimate goal is to return to the number of passengers and destinations it had before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Direct flights offered at the airport are dictated largely by the airline industry, which faces a pilot and crew shortage that has caused carriers to prioritize larger planes out of bigger airports, Riechers said.

"That's part of why we're excited for Breeze to come in," he said.

The airport's passenger levels are close to where they were before the pandemic. Almost 86,000 passengers passed through the airport in June, a near 15% boost from June 2022, according to airport data.

"All this current year, we've been floating either ahead or just behind our 2018 numbers," Riechers said. "It's encouraging because in 2018 that was a record-setting year for the airport. To be pacing for 2018, given the challenges that are facing the industry right now, it is really encouraging."

That rebound comes after 2021 passenger levels fell more in Dane County, about 39%, than any counterparts in Wisconsin compared with 2019. Between 2019 and 2021, the national average fell only 15%.

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