New discount air carrier Breeze adds more routes at Las Vegas airport
Breeze Airways has yet to land a single plane at Harry Reid International Airport but has announced for the second time that it is expanding its flight operations to and from Las Vegas.
The new Cottonwood Heights, Utah-based discount air carrier announced Friday that it will offer daily nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Provo, Utah, beginning Oct. 5. Initial promotional fares are $29 one way.
“It’s been the question on everyone’s lips since we first opened our offices in Cottonwood Heights – when are you flying from Utah?” said Breeze’s founder and CEO David Neeleman. “We’re excited to continue growing and hiring from here, and now flying from here. The beautiful, newly renovated Provo airport will give our guests an easy-breezy way to travel to both coasts.”
The Provo-Las Vegas flights are part of a Utah service rollout to five destinations. Provo Airport is an alternative to Salt Lake City International Airport and is located south of Utah’s capital city, and is the home of Brigham Young University.
The new service will be the 10th destination to be served by Breeze from Las Vegas. The airline’s first Las Vegas flights to and from Richmond, Virginia, will begin June 9.
Breeze will use new twin-engine Airbus A220 jets with a capacity of 126 seats on the new route.
Neeleman, who founded Morris Air in Salt Lake City, JetBlue and Azul Brazilian Airlines in his aviation career, rolled out a series of Las Vegas Breeze routes to Richmond; Syracuse, New York; Fort Myers, Florida; Norfolk, Virginia; Huntsville, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Jacksonville, Florida, in March and added routes to Hartford, Connecticut; and Westchester County, New York, in April.
Breeze opened the Cottonwood Heights headquarters in February 2020, and employs some 70 employees at the facility, many of whom live in the Utah Valley. In March 2022, the airline debuted the Breeze Training Academy in Salt Lake City for initial and recurrent training for its pilots, flight attendants and guest empowerment teams.
With the new base at Provo, the airline expects to hire an additional 200 people, while continuing to add jobs across a range of positions including finance, operations, marketing and human resources at its headquarters.
The airline will more than double its fleet this year, from 13 Embraer 190 and 195 aircraft to 30 aircraft, including 13 Airbus A220s and four additional Embraer E-jets. Breeze has ordered 80 brand new Airbus A220-300 aircraft, with options for 40 more, that will be delivered at a rate of one a month for six years.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.