Breeze Airways Seeks More Pleasant Pandemic Travel

The late Stephen Sondheim offered a lesson from Little Red Riding Hood in his 1986 musical Into the Woods: "Nice is different than good." When a pandemic’s worth of shutdowns, cancellations and staff shortages have been testing passengers' patience, “nice” customer service can be as simple as not making someone's life more difficult than it already is. Breeze Airways debuted as the “Seriously Nice” airline roughly nine months ago. Founded by David Neeleman, who also created JetBlue and WestJet, Breeze modified low-cost carriers’ customer service template to better suit pandemic-era passengers. As most larger carriers were cutting back on flights and passenger count, Breeze added thousands of flights that, according to aviation data company Cirium, were second only to Allegiant Air in terms of growth. And the more than 3,000 seats Breeze added through November trailed only Allegiant and Frontier Airlines, making it an immediate challenger to major airlines and low-cost competitors alike. Even the larger discount airlines, like soon-to-merge Spirit and Frontier, still collect change and cancellation fees while ignoring some of Breeze's core markets. Breeze, on the other hand, has responded to disturbances caused by Covid-19 with low fares, direct routes, flexible booking and phone-free communication. And while eliminating human interaction isn’t always good for the customer, reducing both cost and hassle by targeting smaller markets is about as nice a gesture as an airline can make during a pandemic. “We like to say that we are nice people flying nice people to nice places,” says Angela Vargo, Breeze’s vp of marketing. “That's very deliberate wording, because our people are nice, and we expect our guests to be nice, and we will take you to nice places, and the world would be a much nicer place.” Losing the layover Breeze flies to 18 U.S. destinations along more than 40 routes, with most airfares falling under $100. While the airline's network includes larger cities like Charleston, S.C.; Pittsburgh; and New Orleans, the carrier focuses on short, nonstop flights to smaller destinations, with the majority of flights going in and out of smaller airports such as Islip, N.Y.; Akron/Canton, Ohio; and West Palm Beach, Fla. "Having focus cities at New Orleans, Norfolk, Tampa, Charleston and West Palm potentially represents smart moves," says Jay Sorensen, president of international travel consulting firm IdeaWorksCompany. "But it's a challenging model from an advertising and awareness perspective." The Southwest Standard Sometimes, niceness is just flexibility, a lesson Breeze Airways learned from adopting key portions of the Southwest Airlines template (though the challenger airline has a few more miles to go before it can manage the elder airline's malleability). It's why Southwest offered free cancellations and changes long before Covid-19. It's why it blocked off middle seats, reduced boarding groups from 30 to 10, and limited or eliminated food, beverage and alcohol service on board during the pandemic. It's the reason why, as passengers returned, the airline began restoring pre-pandemic space and amenities, but made changes during the process. After a rough October 2021, during which it canceled more than 3,900 of its flights (3.8% of all flights, compared to 2.1% for the rest of the industry) and had just 67% arrive on time (versus 80% industrywide), Southwest tinkered with its scheduling so it could make staff changes three to four days in advance instead of bumping passengers from flights on the same day. “We've certainly gotten better at being flexible,” says Southwest svp and CMO Ryan Green. “Things come at you very quickly and change very fast in this environment, so you just have to be able to react quickly.” During the pandemic, Southwest added 18 new cities, roughly equal to Breeze’s entire network. The Department of Transportation's numbers indicate that, prior to the pandemic, Southwest had the largest share of 23 of the top 50 travel markets in the U.S. As it tacked on small vacation destinations and college towns, it saw spending on its rewards-accruing credit cards increase. Since those points don’t expire, Southwest sees it as an indication of pent-up demand for travel. “Southwest tends to look at the loyalty component more as transactional than as a relationship built on who the person is,” says Epsilon’s Simon. “Some things that they were already doing enabled them to continue to be successful, but the challenge for network airlines is that their business models weren't built to handle that.” Lukas Johnson, Breeze’s chief commercial officer, points out that 95% of the airline’s routes have no nonstop competition. Often, its passengers are either just beyond major airports or in midsize cities that have to fly through larger hubs. “The two ways to get people out of their seats and to fly more often is to lower the price and to offer a nonstop flight and a good experience,” Johnson says. “If you're looking at it, breaking it down, is there a set of people that don't have a lot of great travel options? Maybe they have to drive to a major primary airport and pay all the congestion and increased parking and all that. Maybe they're from a smaller, midsize city and they have to flow through the hub. Or maybe they're in a fantastic up-and-coming destination. Any of those kind of work out when you're looking at an unserved or underserved area." Low-cost carriers have flourished during the pandemic with the help of leisure passengers, but vacationers aren’t alone in seeking lower fares and fewer connections. Breeze’s flights from energy industry hub Oklahoma City and Walmart’s hometown of Bentonville, Ark., suggest the airline can be equally nice to business travelers. “We've definitely talked to a lot of the larger companies in these cities, and they're not usually the No. 1 reason we’re there—but in some cases they are,” Johnson says. Hanging up Direct routes, though, are only “nice” if passengers arrive at their destination, preferably on time. Through November 2021, before the omicron variant hit, the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated just 81% of all flights arrived on time, down from 84% early in the pandemic in 2020. The number of delayed flights also increased from 9% to 16% during that span. While those are comparable to pre-pandemic numbers, they drove some of Breeze’s core customer service features. The airline lets passengers change or cancel flights with as little as 15 minutes' notice, and no fees apply. Customers also receive flight credits that are good for two years with each purchase. Where Are They Now? The U.S. airline industry has been reshaped by a series of low-cost challengers. These are the carriers that have changed the game. Avelo AirlinesLaunched: Technically April 2021. But its first incarnation, Casino Express Airways (later Xtra Airways), debuted in 1987. Similar to Breeze, but with bicoastal presence. Flights to 10 states out of smaller airports including New Haven, Ct.; Fort Myers, Fla.; and Burbank, Calif. JetBlueLaunched: 1998Breeze founder David Neeleman also founded this airline, which now has more than 1,000 flights and 100-plus domestic and international destinations. JetBlue is currently in an antitrust lawsuit with the DOJ over its new alliance with American Airlines. Southwest AirlinesLaunched: As Air Southwestin 1967 and Southwest Airlines in 1971The Texas carrier originally known for go-go boots, hot pants and free bottles of booze, Southwest grew to more than 400,000 flights and 120 destinations with perks like early check-in, free-form seating and two free checked bags. Allegiant AirLaunched: 1997Yes, it still has more than 30,000 flights to and from sun-soaked destinations (up 12% from pre-pandemic totals, according to Cirium), but air travel is just part of its business plan. Allegiant has its name on the Las Vegas Raiders’ stadium, a vacation resort in Punta Gorda, Fla. (near an airport it monopolizes), golf-course scheduling software and a series of family fun centers. Spirit AirlinesLaunched: As a trucking company in 1964, as an airline in 1983 and as Spirit specifically in 1993 The airline that taught U.S. passengers to pay additional fees for nearly everything, Spirit grew to more than 60,000 flights and 80 destinations. Its business has increased 1.2% since the end of 2019, according to Cirium. Frontier AirlinesLaunched: 1994Beginning as a regional airline out of Denver, Frontier became an ultra-low-cost carrier less than a decade ago after emerging from bankruptcy. Now with nearly 120 domestic and international destinations—and a nearly 5% increase in flights since pre-pandemic 2019—Frontier is attempting to acquire Spirit Airlines and increase its footprint. However, no matter how often Breeze refers to its customers as “guests” or its customer service representatives as being part of a “guest empowerment team,” Johnson notes, they still “get some flak from some people” for not having a phone system. Instead, passengers must contact representatives via email, text or Facebook Messenger. Johnson says that lets representatives handle multiple problems at once without keeping passengers on hold, but it presents issues for the tech-averse. Jason Simon, svp of sales for data-based marketing firm Epsilon, acknowledges that segments of the flying public still rely on in-person communication, but he also suggests the added cost often pays for a feature that’s nice to have, but not particularly helpful. “You have certain parts of the population that are going to be dependent on ‘old string technology’ to interact with the brands, versus somebody like me who would be more than happy to never talk to anyone and get the information,” he says. “If a flight’s been delayed, or there's no crew, that's not going to change whether you're talking to somebody in person on the phone or trying to ascertain that online.” While there's still a divide between "nice" and "good," it isn't unbreachable. Henry Harteveldt, a longtime travel industry analyst who now runs travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group, notes that Breeze recently received its first of 80 Airbus 220 aircraft. Those planes are a significant upgrade from the company's current Embraer aircraft and provide passengers with first class-style seating, in-seat power, Wi-Fi and the potential for coast-to-coast or international flights. With larger airlines distracted by staffing and cancellation issues, Harteveldt says, Breeze's "nice" strategy is likely good enough for the moment. "If Breeze is able to compete by not competing—that is, avoiding going head-to-head with larger, more established airlines—I think the airline will have a solid chance to succeed," he says. To hear more about Breeze Airways, join Adweek at our Challenger Brands summit, a virtual Brandweek event that runs Feb. 22-24. David Neeleman, founder and CEO of the airline, and Angela Vargo, vp of marketing, will be speaking on the main stage on Feb. 22.

Challenger Brands

Breeze Airways Is Redefining Customer Experience by Making Travel 'Seriously Nice'

The new low-cost airline's approach during Covid-19 has made it an instant challenger

Jason Notte

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