Breeze Doubles Down On Raleigh With Four New Year-Round Routes
Breeze Airways is putting even more weight behind Raleigh–Durham International Airport (RDU), adding four new year-round routes and quietly shifting its West Coast strategy from Los Angeles to Orange County.
Breeze’s growth comes as RDU is set to become an operating base for the airline in 2026, with an increasingly leisure-focused network and a growing list of cities that only Breeze serves.
New Nonstop Routes From Raleigh Starting May
All four of Breeze’s new routes from RDU will launch in time for the 2026 summer season:
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Raleigh – Bangor (BGR) – twice weekly, starting May 6
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Raleigh – Newburgh / Stewart (SWF) – twice weekly, starting May 6
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Raleigh – Vero Beach (VRB) – twice weekly, starting May 6
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Raleigh – Orange County / John Wayne (SNA) – twice weekly, starting May 29
Each route will operate year-round with twice-weekly service, lining up nicely with Breeze’s model of low-frequency, point-to-point leisure flying.
On all four city pairs, Breeze will be the only airline offering nonstop flights from Raleigh, giving the carrier uncontested access to these niche markets.
From LAX To Orange County
As Breeze prepares to launch Raleigh–Orange County, the airline is expected to drop its nonstop service from RDU to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
Instead of going head-to-head with multiple legacy carriers at LAX, Breeze is pivoting to John Wayne Airport (SNA), a smaller, more convenient airport for much of Orange County and parts of the LA basin.
The Raleigh–Orange County route is slated to be operated by the Airbus A220-300 with two flights per week, offering a more premium-feeling narrowbody on a long domestic stage length.
Breeze’s Strategy At Raleigh
RDU has quickly become one of Breeze’s most important airports:
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Breeze now serves 30 year-round destinations from Raleigh (including LAX for now), plus six seasonal routes
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The airline is the sole operator on 24 of those routes
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Despite this breadth, Breeze accounts for only around 4% of total airport traffic
The strategy is clear: lots of dots on the map, mostly less-than-daily flights, heavily tilted toward leisure and “visiting friends and relatives” traffic rather than high-frequency business routes.
Of RDU’s top domestic destinations, Breeze only goes head-to-head with competitors on one key market: Orlando, where it competes with Delta, Frontier, and Southwest.
Breeze’s “Seriously Nice” Experience
Breeze leans hard into its “Seriously Nice” branding, especially on the Airbus A220:
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High-speed Viasat Wi-Fi on A220 flights
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Free messaging on popular apps like iMessage and WhatsApp
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Snacks and drinks available for purchase
Seat comfort is a particular selling point. Breeze offers:
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Around 30 inches of pitch in standard seats
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Up to 33 inches in “Extra”
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Up to 39 inches in Breeze Ascent, the airline’s first class-style cabin
The carrier has even picked up awards for seat comfort in North America, helping it punch above its weight against more established airlines.
Who Is Breeze Airways?
Breeze is a young airline with a familiar name behind it. Founded by David Neeleman (who also started JetBlue), the carrier is headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, and launched its first flights in May 2021 between Tampa and Charleston.
Since then, it has built a network centered on medium-size cities and secondary airports, with bases in:
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Akron
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Charleston
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Fort Myers
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Hartford
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New Orleans
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Norfolk
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Orlando
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Providence
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Provo
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Tampa
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Vero Beach
Breeze currently operates a mix of Airbus A220-300s and Embraer E190s, with industry chatter suggesting the E190s may be phased out of scheduled service by the middle of next year as the A220 fleet grows.
Bottom line
Breeze Airways is clearly betting on Raleigh–Durham as a long-term growth market, adding four new year-round routes to Bangor, Newburgh, Vero Beach, and Orange County while shifting its West Coast focus from LAX to SNA.
The airline’s strategy at RDU is classic Breeze: low-frequency, nonstop routes with no direct competition, aimed squarely at leisure travelers and those visiting friends and family. With a comfortable onboard product and a growing A220 fleet, Breeze is steadily turning Raleigh into one of its most interesting—and most unique—focus cities in the US.
