Breeze Airways announces new nonstop flights from RDU, including one to California
Breeze Airways, the upstart low-cost carrier that makes its debut at Raleigh-Durham International Airport this week, has announced nonstop flights to three more destinations from the Triangle.
Breeze will begin flying twice a week between RDU and Los Angeles, Louisville and Pittsburgh in May. The airline says the Louisville and Pittsburgh flights are for the summer travel season but that it plans to fly to Los Angeles year-round.
Breeze will be the only carrier flying nonstop between RDU and Louisville. It joins American with nonstop service to Pittsburgh and will go up against American and Delta on the trip to Los Angeles.
Breeze will begin its first flights from RDU on Thursday, Feb. 16, to Hartford and New Orleans, followed the next day by its inaugural flight to Providence, Rhode Island. The airline also plans to begin flying to Columbus, Ohio, and Jacksonville in May.
“Breeze has already shown it is fully invested in serving the Research Triangle region by announcing more nonstop destinations, even before their first flight launched at RDU,” Michael Landguth, RDU’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are excited to welcome their inaugural flight, and we look forward to continuing to grow with them.”
Breeze will fly to Los Angeles on Wednesdays and Saturdays, to Louisville on Mondays and Fridays and to Pittsburgh on Thursdays and Sundays.
With planned nonstops to eight destinations, Breeze has quickly become a busy airline at RDU. It joins another low-cost start-up, Avelo Airlines, which begins nonstop service to six cities in Florida this month, in addition to Tweed-New Haven Airport in Connecticut. Avelo will base two Boeing 737s at RDU, creating 50 jobs, including pilots, flight attendants, aircraft technicians and gate agents.
Breeze will operate out of Terminal 2 at RDU, while Avelo moves to Terminal 1 this week.
With summer service to Pittsburgh and Louisville, Breeze follows a strategy established at RDU by Frontier Airlines, which flies between the Triangle and northern destinations each summer. In April, Frontier begins nonstops to Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Portland, Maine, Syracuse, Trenton, New Jersey, and Islip, New York.
