Breeze Tests Connections in a Surprising Place

The airline launched as a point-to-point carrier but it's now trying something new, its president told The Airline Observer.

Dear readers,

Here’s a quick note on consumer protections before I turn to Breeze’s unusual strategy for connecting itineraries.

If you watched the news in the United States on Monday, you might have thought the U.S had introduced its own version of EU 261, allowing travelers to seek compensation from an airline after lengthy delays. The Biden administration certainly wanted you to think so, as the president held a press conference and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg made the rounds on national media.

But after a while, I realized this was mostly an exercise in rhetoric. The administration does plan to introduce new consumer protections, but no one wanted to say exactly what would be included. Consumers might be eligible for cash payments, or they might not. Also, the timeline is wishy-washy. The administration promised a proposed rule by year end, but any proposal must still go through the bureaucratic process. For now, it seems more like something to campaign on, rather than real policy change.

I like to tell it like it is. If you want my unvarnished opinions, you can watch my live interviews on CBS News or CNN.

Now back to the normal topic set for this newsletter.

---

Breeze Airways likes to promote its grand strategy to fly nonstop routes from underserved, mid-sized markets with robust local demand. But when it sought to test flight connections recently, to see if the increased revenue can outpace the extra cost, it chose one of the more congested airports in the United States.