PLATTSBURGH — Breeze Airways is expanding its offerings of flights locally.
Breeze recently announced that its service at Vermont’s Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport kicked off with a seasonal flight to Tampa, Florida on Wednesday.
Following that inaugural flight, the airline wasted no time in announcing the addition of two direct flights to Orlando, Fla. and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., set to begin on Feb. 14 and May 23, respectively.
“The Florida market is a substantial market for locals and visitors alike that has gone unserved for a number of years at Leahy BTV,” Nic Longo, Director of Aviation at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, said in a press release about the announcement.
“Today, this changes thanks to our newly formed partnership with Breeze Airways, who we look forward to expanding our relationship with in the coming years.”
The Raleigh-Durham flight will be offered seasonally on Thursdays and Sundays; the Tampa flights will be winter/spring seasonal and offered on Wednesdays and Saturdays; and the Orlando flights will be offered year round Wednesdays and Saturdays.
“Breeze’s focus is on connecting underserved markets, adding nonstops between cities without existing service,” Breeze Airways’ President Tom Doxey said.
“As we introduce service from Burlington, we’re proud to bring affordable and convenient new travel options to two new Florida destinations and to North Carolina.”
PLATTSBURGH SERVICER
Here at Plattsburgh International Airport, Breeze is kicking off its seasonal Tampa service today, with flights now available on Mondays and Fridays until the end of April.
Breeze’s Plattsburgh service began in November with flights to Orlando being offered three times a week on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Clinton County Legislator and Chair of the Plattsburgh International Airport Committee, Bobby Hall (D-Area 10, City of Plattsburgh), told the Press-Republican Thursday that Breeze does not plan to add the same Raleigh-Durham flight here as they did in Burlington.
“We are not happy that they went to Burlington first, and not Plattsburgh first,” Hall said.
“That was very surprising and shocking and we made it known to them that we were expecting the same for Plattsburgh, New York.”
But, Hall said, Breeze does plan to announce two different destinations “soon” for PBG.
“When I say very soon, I’m talking about very soon,” he said.
Hall said he wasn’t able to speak on where those destinations will be just yet, but added that there are three or four locations that Breeze is deciding between at the moment.
“They gave us three or four destinations — which they want to go to all of them — but they were negotiating to get landing rights, and I guess that’s something that you just don’t do overnight.”
‘GOT TO PICK UP’
Since Breeze’s service began at PBG, it has been generally well received, Hall said.
He typically receives the positive and negative feedback for all the airlines at PBG and he said Breeze has been popular among the community so far.
Hall attributed that to the seating being very spacious; being able to buy Wi-Fi for the whole family on the flight for $8; service being really good; and it being a direct flight.
“The Orlando flight, I’ve had all kinds of details telling me how great it was and how the plane was busy and everything else,” he said.
Though he said the Tuesday flight to Orlando has been a “nightmare” in terms of getting people to fill it up.
“It’s not doing as good as we want it to and it has got to pick up.”
‘USE IT ALL THE TIME’
Hall had spoke about this potential issue at Breeze’s inaugural news conference in November. He tried to emphasize that if the flights routinely fill up, the community can expect more flights in the future.
“This is gonna be a great relationship … and I think the one thing that I really caught on to is there can be other flights — there will be other flights — if we use them, if we use this airport,” he said at the time.
“There’s over 100 people on this flight … Use it all the time. This is a great airline. They will go other places and we need them.”