US low cost carrier Breeze Airways has just revealed its latest expansion, which is interesting on a whole different level.
In this post:
Breeze Airways expands to Charleston, West Virginia
Breeze Airways has announced that Charleston, West Virginia (CRW), will be its newest destination. As of May 31, 2023, Breeze will fly 2x weekly from Charleston to the following destinations:
- Charleston, South Carolina (CHS)
- Orlando, Florida (MCO)
This is a big win for Charleston’s Yeager Airport:
- The airport has service on American Eagle to Charlotte (CLT) and Washington (DCA), on Delta Connection to Atlanta (ATL), and on United Express to Chicago (ORD)
- Spirit Airlines has flown to Myrtle Beach (MYR) and Orlando (MCO), but will be discontinuing both routes as of May 4, 2023
Breeze is largely focused on operating point-to-point routes that other airlines don’t serve. As you can tell, both of these routes are ones where the airline won’t have any competition. However, in the case of Charleston to Orlando, Breeze is simply replicating a route where Spirit didn’t have any success.
It’s interesting to see Breeze try a route where Spirit failed. That doesn’t exactly instill much confidence that Breeze will have success. However, Breeze does have a couple of advantages:
- Breeze has smaller planes, as the company’s Embraer E190s have just 108 seats; meanwhile Spirit’s smallest plane (the Airbus A319) has 145 seats
- Breeze seems more willing to operate flights with only a couple of weekly frequencies, while Spirit’s business model is more about operating in higher frequency markets
A Charleston to Charleston route is kind of cool
While new service in general is kind of cool, a nonstop route from Charleston to Charleston is especially fun, if you ask me. It’s not often you’ll be welcomed aboard a flight to and from the same cities.
I believe this is the first route in the world between two cities that have exactly the same name. The closest I can otherwise think of is a route from San Jose, California (SJC), to San José del Cabo, Mexico (SJD), but those aren’t identical names.
Breeze also claims that it operates an Orange County to Orange County route, given that it flies from Santa Ana (SNA) to Orlando (MCO), but I think that’s a bit different.
Bottom line
Breeze Airways is expanding to Charleston, West Virginia, and will operate the only point-to-point routes that the airport has (as the routes on US regional airlines are primarily to feed into hub networks). Breeze is expanding to Charleston as Spirit pulls out of the market, so hopefully Breeze has better luck.
Particularly cool is a new Charleston to Charleston flight, as I think this is the only service in the world between two cities with identical names.
What do you make of Breeze’s expansion to Charleston, West Virginia?
Next maybe we'll get Portland (PWM) to Portland (PDX)
I think you're looking for SJC-SJO which would be San Jose (CA) to San Jose (CR)....
As someone from Sydney, I look forward to the stories of the travellers going to the “wrong” Charleston :)
Valencia to Valencia or Barcelona - Barcelona would be cool as well, but probably would demand a more stabile Venezuela.
I’d Breeze want headlines, they should start a nice flight to Nice, France
Maybe Breeze will find a niche in servicing airports with the same name…Augusta Ga to Augusta ME?(both have commercial airports) is one example. Are there others?
A Melbourne (VIC, AU) to Melbourne ( FL, US) anyone? From what I recall MLB is used to store aircraft. Another suggestion is St. Petersburg (RU) to St. Petersburg (FL, US) but St. Pete rarely see traffics.
You are grasping.
I’ve flown the Nicest seats back and forth between MCO - SNA. Very comfortable seat with reasonable markup especially on planes with nine “Nicest” rows.
Years ago (yes many!) when I worked at Piedmont we flew to both of these cities. To avoid confusion amongst employees and customers we always referred to them as "Charlie West" and "Charlie South."
I'll be waiting for a Panamá City direct flight to Panamá City.
David Neeleman's company has EXTREMELY poor reviews from customers; as well as current employees. Everyone is not buying into this "computerized" customer service strategy - nor flights departing 2x a week (Allegiant). Planes are "nice", but you need customers to fly on them - and employees to service them.
I flew RDU-BDL round trip. The small plane was almost full both ways but I wasn’t a fan of the Nicer seating. I had more legroom on a mainline Delta or SWA aircraft.
But yeah, Breeze needs some improvement.
You could argue that SJC to SJD is San Jose, California to San Jose, (Baja) California.
He did!
Is it cool enough for you to do a trip report on for sh*ts and giggles?
I'm hoping for a Portland, OR to Portland, ME route
Maybe you already wrote about this but Breeze was in Orlando a month or so back promoting their (MCO-SNA) DisneyWorld to Disneyland, aka Orange County to Orange County service.
While the names are not spelled exactly the same, Air New Zealand has occasionally mentioned an Auckland to Oakland flight based on the similarity in pronunciation.
Yes, but you need a vowel-mangling Kiwi accent to pronounce those two names the same!
For those excited, don't get your hopes up. From experience, they are not the most reliable, and they constantly pull out of many markets.
I tried to fly them last year. They cancelled the flight and left me abandoned. No compensation - no customer service. Had to book last minute flight with Delta. Ive never flow Spirit but they would be a major step up from Breeze.
Well, they sure know how to get headlines.
I recently flew LAX to HPN (suburbs of NYC) on a direct flight and loved the convenience and it was a good ride sitting up front. I recommend others give them a chance and I'm eager to see them continuing to grow at HPN.
I go back and forth on this. They will be great for bring HPN fares down, but HPN is already seemingly at capacity. It's an incredibly convenient airport for those in Westchester, Fairfield, etc, but it's also a nightmare when you're inside. Especially if you are departing at a peak time when all the gates are being used.
I can see CRW from my office window as I type this. Both routes will fail as soon as the grant/subsidy runs dry. Both have been tried(CHS with Independence and MCO, as you wrote, with Spirit). Yes, there is some demand, but even at 2X/week there is just not enough traffic using CRW.
We were hoping for resumption of service to LGA, IAH, DFW, DTW etc.. on a legacy carrier. Nope.
Manhattan, NY to Manhattan, KS. By helicopter.
When I visited Tenerife, we flew from Santa Cruz (Tenerife) to Santa Cruz (de la Palma) nonstop. It was also like $20 and a very scenic little island hop.
Now we need someone to start flying nonstop from San José, Costa Rica to San Jose, California. Maybe Alaska Airlines
I’m hoping for the Sydney, NS to Sydney, NSW non stop.
London, UK to London, Ontario is perhaps a more realistic possibility?
How is London, UK, to London, ON more realistic than San Jose, CA to San Jose, CR? I doubt that consumers from London, ON can fill a trasatlantic plane, they don´t even have flights to the USA... Also, I doubt english flyers would even consider to fly to London, ON when they have tons of flights to YYZ and DTW, which are really nearby.
On the other hand, Costa Rica receives tons of flyers from...
How is London, UK, to London, ON more realistic than San Jose, CA to San Jose, CR? I doubt that consumers from London, ON can fill a trasatlantic plane, they don´t even have flights to the USA... Also, I doubt english flyers would even consider to fly to London, ON when they have tons of flights to YYZ and DTW, which are really nearby.
On the other hand, Costa Rica receives tons of flyers from the USA for tourism and business reasons and 10 airlines already offer flights from CR to US, including Alaska Airlines. I don´t see why residents of Sillicon Valley wouldn´t want to have some holidays in Costa Rica ...
Now that West Virginia and South Carolina are linked, marrying your cousin will be a Breeze!
That didn't take long. Charlie west has the only legitimate airport with several airlines for quite some distance in WV. Quite the landing on that hilltop runway.