Breeze Airlines is run by David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue Airways. In May 2021 the airline started operations as a new low-cost carrier prioritizing nonstop flights between underserved routes while providing customers with affordable and convenient air travel options.
If you do a search for the route map of Breeze Airways, you’ll find a multiverse of options. That’s because Breeze is constantly changing the cities it operates from. They add new routes and then remove them almost as quickly.
Breeze Airlines has a decently sized operation at Orlando International Airport (MCO) and services cities that otherwise don’t have a non-stop option from the popular area:
- Akron/Canton
- Charleston (SC)
- Charleston (WV)
- Fayetteville/Bentonville
- Huntsville
- New Orleans
- Portland (ME)
- Providence
- Tulsa
In February 2023, Breeze added a new city to its Orlando destinations; Orange County, CA. John Wayne International Airport (SNA) is located in unincorporated Orange County, California and is closest to the city of Santa Ana. If you’re traveling to Orange County, it’s much more convenient to fly into SNA than it is to fly into LAX and drive the rest of the way.
What made this route interesting was that it was the only non-stop flight between the airports closest to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Dubbed the “Disney Shuttle,” it was the easiest way for people on either coast to fly between the parks. Disney fans and employees both enjoyed the reasonably priced daily flight on an Airbus A220-300 aircraft.
While the route sounds intriguing on paper, there was apparently limited interest in the route over the winter. So Breeze announced there would be a “seasonal pause” in service starting on November 14, with service resuming on February 14, 2024.
However, Breeze has recently notified passengers who purchased tickets that the service between the cities will now end on October 3, 2023.
Now here’s where things get interesting…
Breeze claims the decision is based on a request from Santa Ana’s John Wayne Airport to reduce airport traffic from now until February 2024. I did some searching and I can’t find any kind of statement from the airport asking airlines to cut flights. In addition, I can’t even find evidence of any other airline canceling routes to SNA because of this request.
Frankly, I can’t see how the removal of one Breeze plane a day arriving and departing from the airport would make a big difference in airport traffic at John Wayne Airport. Instead, it seems like an easy excuse to cut a flight that probably wasn’t performing as well as they would have liked.
Breeze will refund tickets for those impacted by the canceled flights between October 3rd and November 14th. This includes a cash refund or returning Breeze Points if that’s how you booked your ticket.
Since there is no other option to fly between Orlando and Orange County, CA, this means passengers will need to book a flight on another carrier either traveling from LAX or with a connecting flight to or from SNA.
What I’m more interested in seeing is if this route comes back in February 2024, as the airline claims it will.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
Feature Image: Breeze Airways / Instagram
6 comments
Breeze also cut Columbus – Providence early and failed to launch, I mean postponed announced Providence – Los Angeles for Summer 2022 to Summer 2023. I want to support Breeze but flying 2X or 3X/week and completely non-refundable fares is a major hurdle.
Orange County operates under an odd capacity-cap that limits the number of passengers annually (thanks rich people who decided to live off the end of the runway!). With air travel returning at record levels, the airport is rapidly approaching its cap for this year. Southwest just announced reductions until the end of the year by limited sales… they are going to run most flights capped at a 70-75% load. A unique airport.
This is definitely not odd. SNA is a difficult airport to operate from due to local political pressures and that includes passenger caps. It isn’t about movements but passenger counts. Southwest has been and will continue to be capping seats out of SNA. The legacies just downgrade to regional jets so they keep frequencies.
Gary did some actual work on this:
https://viewfromthewing.com/southwest-airlines-reveals-they-have-a-problem-at-orange-countys-airport/
I am totally speculating, but Breeze must be over their allocated passenger cap and had to cut something, and this long and thing route when they have limited aircraft resources was likely the place to do it.
Southwest is selling less seats to reduce passengers. It’s true that the airport is limiting capacity.
I have a granddaughter going TJ school in Irvine and this route (MCO to SNA) was a time saver. However Breeze is totally unreliable, often hours late or cancels for no reason that we stopped using it.
SNA is notorious for doing idiotic stuff like this thanks to people buying property right beside an airport and then being shocked – shocked! – that people would dare to fly loud airplanes near their house. And these people unfortunately have undue influence over the local government and try to use it to limit operations at the airport. Basically the same thing that’s happening at AMS, just on a smaller, but more Karen-like scale.