Hartford Business Journal

12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | March 28, 2022 Taking Flight Despite challenges from pandemic and high oil prices, serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman is bullish on Bradley Airport By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com D avid Neeleman knows a good opportunity when he sees it. Just look at his track record. Neeleman is the legendary aviation industry entrepreneur who co-founded five airlines, including one — Morris Air — that was sold to Southwest Airlines for $130 million. His latest venture, Breeze Airways, launched last year amid the pandemic and is making a big bet on Bradley International Airport. Earlier this month, Breeze announced it will be adding six new nonstop flights at Bradley starting in June to: Nashville, Tennessee; Akron/Canton, Ohio; Savannah, Georgia; Richmond, Virginia; Jacksonville, Florida; and Sarasota/ Bradenton, Florida. That's on top of four Bradley flights it launched last May to Columbus, Ohio; Norfolk, Virginia; Pittsburgh; and Charleston, South Carolina. And in February Breeze Airways announced plans to set up an operations base at the Windsor Locks-based airfield. The state is supporting the expansion with a grant of up to $1.3 million, contingent upon the company creating and retaining 212 full-time jobs at the site. In a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal, Neeleman said he founded the Salt Lake City-based company with a focus on lower-cost fares in underserved markets. Breeze positions itself as a tech-driven airline that offers nonstop flights and scheduling flexibility. For example, he says it charges no fees for flights that are changed or canceled up to 15 minutes before scheduled departure. It also targets routes not being served by other airlines. "We don't have any competitors because no one serves the markets that we serve," Neeleman said. So far, Neeleman said he likes what he sees out of his company's Bradley Airport business, despite challenges the airline industry in general faces coming out of the pandemic and with high oil prices. While Bradley nearly doubled its passenger traffic in 2021 to 4.6 million passengers, that number was still down 31.6% from the pre- pandemic year of 2019. From May 2021 through January 2022, Breeze Airways recorded 57,575 flights in and out of Bradley, according to data from the Connecticut Airport Authority. Neeleman said there is pent-up demand for travel coming out of the pandemic. "It's gone well [at Bradley], that's why we are expanding there," he said. "It's probably the only city we serve where we've actually added more destinations than we had originally." Here's what else Neeleman had to say: Q. Why open an operations base at Bradley Airport? A. We find cities that are underserved and have populations that deserve more nonstop service. Bradley is our fifth base. The other ones are in New Orleans, Tampa, Charleston and Norfolk. On The Record | Q&A DAVID NEELEMAN CEO Breeze Airways Founder/Co-founder: Breeze Airways, Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue and Azul Airlines Age: 62 Breeze Airways CEO David Neeleman said he expects a rebound in leisure travel to propel his company's expansion at Bradley International Airport. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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