Breeze Airways Goes All A220: Goodbye Embraer

Breeze Airways will move towards flying only the Airbus A220, a confirmed developed followign the delivery of its 50th unit and paving the way for fleet retirements.

Since conception, and that certainly not as long ago as some other competitors, Breeze Airways has operated under a mixed fleet model, the A220 growing in numbers as the months passed, but first-generation Embraer jets carrying the bulk of the load with the E190s and E195s.

With each delivery of an A220, Breeze Airways has been well-positioned to continue phasing out older aircraft in favour of these new planes. Now that the newly delivered aircraft have arrived, these older Embraer jets and the remaining six models can depart by the end of the year.

This means Breeze Airways will operate with a single aircraft type at the heart of its business, and it is a key moment for its development as an airline if it wants to drive down costs and scale in the future.

The A220 and Breeze Airways: Perfect

For Breeze Airways, the utilisation of the Airbus A220 family represnets far more than just the addition of a narrowbody aircraft; ultimately, the aircraft is absolutely pivotal to the business model, linking underserved pairings with not just efficiency but also range and capacity.

The A220 enables profitability through its economics, paired with versatility and even comfort levels, so the airline sees the benefits trickle down to its passengers. With a view to digging deeper into international leisure and underserved markets, whether across Mexico or to the Caribbean, having a platform that works for that is important.

These Airbus A220s have also been configured with capacity in mind and are seen as the ideal way to serve critical locations, without needing to scale up to the A320neo family, which would add another fleet type and incur additional costs.

Now The A220-500 Becomes A Focus

Earlier this year, Airbus reportedly opened pre-orders to airlines for its A220-500, a prospective stretch variant that would add nearly 20 seats to the A220-300, which is set to debut in the next 12 months with additional seating.

Airbus has been studying such a variant for years, but, as it says, it needs not just stability across the single-aisle program it acquired in 2018. What this includes is breaking even, but also needs 2-3 anchor airlines, which would support a launch and eventual scaling of orderbook and production to make the investment in this enhancement, not a clean sheet, worthwhile.

Breeze Airways, alongside its existing A220 commitment, has long expressed interest in operating an aircraft such as the -500. The belief is that the jets’ additional capacity would create a perfect bridge to the A320neo without introducing a new fleet type, and would also bring capacity to underserved markets that need it most as we move into the 2030s.

With additional Breeze Airways wanting to scale ot a fleet of possibly 400 aircraft by the 2030s under ambitious growth plans, new planes will be pivotal, and especially the A220, hence relying on a mix of variants to serve the company’s unique requirements is part of the drive for a variant.

AirAsia’s landmark order for 150 A220-300s also saw cited interest in the A220-500. AirBaltic has also expressed interest in such a model; even Air Canada is on the list. All this interest will help give Airbus the confidence it needs to greenlight the project as soon as this year. Ultimately, even though the breakeven point has not been reached.