RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond travelers are getting some new nonstop travel options. Less than a year after it started flying, new Breeze Airways is announcing an aggressive expansion plan that will include flights on the West Coast.
Breeze said Tuesday that it will add 35 routes from 10 more cities.
Breeze announced new flights from Richmond to the following cities:
- Jacksonville, FL (starting May 19, from $39 one way)
- San Francisco, CA (May 25, from $99 one way)
- Hartford, CT (June 3, from $39 one way)
- Las Vegas, NV (June 9, from $99 one way)
- Providence, RI (June 30, from $39 one way)
- Columbus, OH (June 30, from $39 one way)
"Our hope for this is that it's going to give Richmonders more options for more affordable, low-cost flights to a lot more destinations that they couldn't get to previously," Angela Vargo, with Breeze Airways, said. "I think we all are really excited to get out and to explore new destinations, and doing it on nonstop flights, which are quick and easy and affordable. Just make that more attainable."
The super cheap, introductory promotional fares are only available through Friday.
So what happens after Friday?
"From there you'll see more of what our everyday pricing would be like," Vargo said. "We're not coming in with our nonstop flights and then jacking up the price to be really high because we're the only one in that space. We're actually either lower than or right at what you would pay for nonstop to other destinations of low-cost carriers. That's just part of our business model."
That growth of Breeze is coming just as jet fuel prices surge to an 8-year high.
Breeze founder David Neeleman said fares must go up to cover the extra fuel costs.
He thinks his airline can limit price increase to between $3 and $5 for every dollar increase in the price of fuel. But he acknowledges that whenever fares go up, demand for air travel suffers.
