Breeze Airways is now officially flying out of Tallahassee International Airport, giving travelers in the “Capital City” a new option for nonstop service.
WATCH FULL REPORT BELOW:
The carrier began operations at the airport Thursday, offering nonstop flights to Fort Lauderdale and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.
Non-stop flights will operate three days a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.
Cheryl Johnson, a traveler from Fort Lauderdale, was on the first arriving flight.
"Originally, I tried this on JetBlue, and they may have lasted six months, so I never got a chance to do it. So, this is awesome to come straight here without going through Atlanta or Jacksonville," Johnson said.
Florida State University student Alessandra Morera, who’s originally from Miami, booked a later flight, citing affordability as her reason.
"A lot of the flights going in out of Tallahassee are really expensive, and once I heard about Breeze Airways it was really like appealing, knowing that the price range would be accessible for me to go home," Morera said.
The City of Tallahassee is backing the new partnership with a $3 million incentive package, evenly split between community incentives from the city — or taxpayer dollars — and the waiving of airport fees.
The move comes after JetBlue arrived and departed in less than a year, and Silver Airways shut down all operations in Florida.
Airport Director David Pollard said Breeze is just the beginning of the airport's effort to recruit new carriers.
"It gives travelers one more choice, and to have the low fares that Breeze brings into this community for our travelers, I saw a lot of excited people getting off this aircraft just now," Pollard said.
Breeze Airways Founder and CEO David Neeleman also weighed in in a press release announcing the launch
"We are thrilled to welcome our Guests in Tallahassee on board and can't wait for them to experience Breeze. Both of these routes offer our Guests great access to our intra-Florida service as well as access to our crew base in Raleigh. We know Breeze's high-value, low-cost model will be a hit for travelers in the community," Neeleman said.
Pollard added that the airport's growth is part of a broader push to strengthen the regional economy, which also includes plans to continue growing air service, create a future foreign trade zone and open a new international facility.
"We're always looking to expand the economic impact of this community and this region. We understand that we're a part of that. We work with our local business, our local chambers, and others as we continue to expand our footprint and show how we can be an economic generator, right?” Pollard said.
“We create over $859 million of economic impact on our way to over $1 billion of annual economic impact.”
***This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.***
Want to see more local news? Visit the WTXL ABC 27 Website.
Stay in touch with us anywhere, anytime.
