Breeze adds Dulles in EAS play

Breeze Airways is headed to the Washington, DC area. The carrier will launch service to Ogdensburg, NY at the end of the month under a two-year Essential Air Service contract from the US Department of Transportation.

Breeze plans to fly daily to Ogdensburg using its A220-300 fleet. One flight a day is less than the DOT typically requires for EAS contract service, but the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority requested a waiver from that requirement in throwing its support behind the Breeze application.

Granting this bid will provide our region with direct, high-speed jet access to Washington Dulles Airport through the national air transportation system, using the larger 137-seat Airbus A220. This service promises to significantly benefit the entire North Country as a crucial driver of economic growth, ensuring scheduled passenger service to a key national hub. [Ogdensburg] believes this proposal meets the community’s needs and offers a unique opportunity for development that has been lacking. – Steven J. Lawrence, Executive Director of the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority

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Given its network structure, running operations on just one route is not feasible for Breeze. As a result the carrier plans to add three more markets at Dulles. Provo, Utah will see thrice weekly service. Vero Beach, Florida and South Bend, Indiana will each be served twice weekly. The Provo flight will launch on 1 October, helping move a plane and crew through the network to deliver the Ogdensburg service. The other two launch in November.

Breeze will receive a subsidy of $12,255 per flight to operate the route ($12,623 in year two). That adds up to roughly $9 million annually. It offsets what the carrier estimates as $10.4 million in expenses to run the service, balanced by approximately $2 million in revenue (~$42 per available seat flown).

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EAS service typically is focused on delivering travelers into the global air travel network. As a standalone airline, Breeze is not particularly well suited for that. In its application, however, the carrier indicated it “is in discussions with large domestic and international carriers and expects interline connectivity to be available to [Ogdensburg] by the end of 2024.” That optimism is not, however, reflected in the DOT’s evaluation of the applications.

The carrier also proposed an option that would have served Orlando twice weekly. That route is longer than 650 miles, however, and therefore ineligible for EAS subsidies. A proposal from Boutique Air to serve O’Hare was eliminated for similar reasons (and also lack of community support).