Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: Radio Top of Mind for us. First of all, at
Speaker 2: quick News, you know Boeing deliveries in the first quarter
Speaker 2: dipping to the lowest since mid twenty twenty one, highlighting
Speaker 2: how far the planemaker has to go on its road
Speaker 2: to recovery from that near catastrophic accident early in January.
Speaker 2: So no doubt, Tim, major airlines are watching for what
Speaker 2: comes next from Boeing.
Speaker 3: Well, when it comes to what is actually happening in
Speaker 3: the space, it makes sense to keep a watch on.
Speaker 3: Our next guest, who's well known in the commercial airline industry,
Speaker 3: having founded five airlines, including Jet Blue, WestJet and the
Speaker 3: latest Breeze Airways. With us now is the founder and
Speaker 3: CEO of Breeze, David Nielman with us from Providence, Rhode Island. David,
Speaker 3: good to have you back with us. How are you good?
Speaker 1: Good? You know, it's been a long day but productive
Speaker 1: day here.
Speaker 3: Hey, this is not your first rodeo, as they say,
Speaker 3: but your newest airline, Breeze, turned three years old in May.
Speaker 3: Give us an update on expansion, give us an update
Speaker 3: on growth here.
Speaker 2: You said it was a productive day, So why was
Speaker 2: it productive?
Speaker 1: Well, I think you know, a lot a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of talking about you know, our new credit card,
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, press interviews, and but I
Speaker 1: think the biggest news that we have for today is
Speaker 1: that we actually made our first profit. We've made a
Speaker 1: profit in March, and we expect to be profitable for
Speaker 1: the year. And you know, this is in a year
Speaker 1: where you know, some of the ulccs are really struggling,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm just really proud of our team.
Speaker 1: We've we've really carved out a really great niche where
Speaker 1: people love flying on breeze. They love the the airplanes,
Speaker 1: the service, the markets we fly, the NonStop we have
Speaker 1: about ninety we have almost two hundred routes, and ninety
Speaker 1: percent of them we have no NonStop competition. But there
Speaker 1: are routes that people really love to fly. And so
Speaker 1: that's that's really, you know, the most important thing for
Speaker 1: us is profitability and continue to grow and continuing to
Speaker 1: find great new markets and sturing the markets that we
Speaker 1: have today. Well, just yeah, Providence, we need to give
Speaker 1: the example Providence from here it's top of mind. We
Speaker 1: have twenty destinations we serve from Providence. We have more
Speaker 1: destinations from Providence any other airline. And you know it's
Speaker 1: a We're flying Providence to Lax for example, Providence at Denver,
Speaker 1: you know, Providence to you know, Florida of course, to Raleigh, Durham,
Speaker 1: to mid Atlantic, all over the place, twenty different places.
Speaker 1: And and you know, people in Providence love it. They
Speaker 1: don't want to shop all the way up to the
Speaker 1: Boston and you know, deal with traffic and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff when they can fly out to the
Speaker 1: hometown airport.
Speaker 2: So talk to us a little bit about fares holding
Speaker 2: up in this class. I mean, it feels like there
Speaker 2: are a lot of budget seats in the market. I mean,
Speaker 2: talk to us a little bit about fares and pricing
Speaker 2: and summer demand. How you're starting to see that shape up.
Speaker 1: Well, it's good. I mean we had a good first quarter.
Speaker 1: You know, it was interesting. We did more revenue in
Speaker 1: March than we did the whole first quarter of last year.
Speaker 1: Kind of shows you our growth, you know, I guess
Speaker 1: that's three hundred percent or more. Yeah, April looks good,
Speaker 1: you know, May is May. It's a bit of a
Speaker 1: transition month where we move a lot of our our
Speaker 1: north south flying to east west. You know, we're starting
Speaker 1: to fly San Diego for the first time, going from Norfolk,
Speaker 1: which is a huge navy based to San Diego for example.
Speaker 1: So you know, May looks pretty good and then June
Speaker 1: summer looks strong and uh, you know, holding our projections
Speaker 1: for a profitable years. So you know, it's interesting because
Speaker 1: we have kind of a base fair that's you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like a basic economy that everybody else has.
Speaker 1: And then the jump ups where you go from nice
Speaker 1: to nicest, too nice, nicer to nicest where you get
Speaker 1: into a first class seat, isn't that bad? And people
Speaker 1: people love it, you know, they see the upgrade. It
Speaker 1: doesn't it doesn't feel like nicol and diming because we're
Speaker 1: actually giving you something of value, including free internet, and
Speaker 1: uh so you know it's it's it's working really well.
Speaker 1: It's a really good model.
Speaker 3: Hey David, I'm interested in the fleet. Uh, Airbus A
Speaker 3: two twenty and Brayer one nineties and one ninety fives.
Speaker 3: How are you able to survive with such a small
Speaker 3: airplane when it seems like everybody else is increasing the
Speaker 3: size of the planes that they're using to offset those
Speaker 3: higher pilot salaries.
Speaker 1: That's a great question. It's a really great question. So
Speaker 1: the embraers we use primarily for charters. We do have
Speaker 1: a little bit of scheduled service with them, and they're
Speaker 1: going away by the end of this year and it'll
Speaker 1: be all too twenties the one nineties. In the month
Speaker 1: of March, we did almost six hundred charters that we flew,
Speaker 1: you know, for NCAA, March Madness and all of that.
Speaker 1: So we use those planes primarily for that operation, and
Speaker 1: our pilots and flight crews do a great job. Now
Speaker 1: the two twenty you're right, I mean, pilot salaries have
Speaker 1: gone up, and fortunately the pilot shortage situation in the
Speaker 1: US has has really gotten better, much much better, you know,
Speaker 1: with you know, pilots getting ready to be laid off
Speaker 1: at some airlines and a lot of airlines not hiring,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that's because of boying deliveries, but
Speaker 1: because the two twenties so efficient fuel burn and maintenance costs.
Speaker 1: You know, we only have one hundred and thirty seven
Speaker 1: seats and our trip cost that's our you know, our
Speaker 1: being able to fly from A to B we believe
Speaker 1: is about twenty percent lower fifteen to twenty percent lower
Speaker 1: than a three twenty And a lot of our competitors
Speaker 1: fly a three twenties, you know, be it Spirit or
Speaker 1: Frontier or Allegiant or Jet Blue. So we can fly
Speaker 1: for twenty percent lower, and that just opens up an
Speaker 1: exponential amount of routes that we can fly because we
Speaker 1: have lower trip costs because the plane is new and
Speaker 1: it's efficient, and you know, has these long ranges, so
Speaker 1: we can do these long, thin routes as well. So
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I mean what Spirits I think is
Speaker 1: really struggling trying to figure out what do I do
Speaker 1: with a two hundred and forty seed airplane. I got
Speaker 1: a fly where everybody else is and you know the
Speaker 1: other everybody else is not, you know, being kind of
Speaker 1: late to them where eighty percent of their routes they
Speaker 1: have NonStop competition, ninety percent of our routes we have
Speaker 1: no NonStop competition.
Speaker 2: You know, David, you've used airbus planes a lot in
Speaker 2: your timeline and creation of five different carriers, if you will,
Speaker 2: And yeah, the Airbus three twenties right, a big part
Speaker 2: of Jet Blue back then. I'm just curious what you
Speaker 2: make of what's going on with Boeing in trouble again
Speaker 2: if you will. And you know it's a duopoly, right,
Speaker 2: it's either Airbus are bowing at this point. But I'm
Speaker 2: just curious how you were thinking about Boeing in its
Speaker 2: future here and why don't you choose more Boeings.
Speaker 1: Well, it just size.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: I was interesting because my first airline, More Sarah, had
Speaker 1: Boyings and I love Boying, and I went up to
Speaker 1: Boeing and was fully intent on buying seven thirty seven's
Speaker 1: for Jet Blue. We couldn't come to an agreement, so
Speaker 1: we went and met with Airbus. Airbus just sold me
Speaker 1: that they had a better product, a better airplane, better,
Speaker 1: our customers would love it more, you know fly by
Speaker 1: wy or just so many other vantage is better fuel burned,
Speaker 1: and it was just a newer technology. It was a
Speaker 1: newer technology airplane. So I picked Airbus at that time. Now,
Speaker 1: the reason I picked it wasn't because of safety. It
Speaker 1: was just because it was a better airplane for us,
Speaker 1: and it was a better airplane for our customers. I
Speaker 1: find seven thirty sevens on a weekly basis. They just
Speaker 1: got off a United seven thirty seven last week. I
Speaker 1: feel one safe. I'm I have total confidence in Boeing.
Speaker 1: Obviously they're going through a rough patch here, you know,
Speaker 1: but there's the safety record in the United States for
Speaker 1: all commercial carriers is unbelievable. I mean, if you look back,
Speaker 1: it's hard to find the last major accident by a
Speaker 1: Boying airplane, you know, in the United States, and it's
Speaker 1: really difficult. So, you know, my heart goes out to
Speaker 1: Boying there, you know, there. I know they're going through it.
Speaker 1: I know that this will make them a better company,
Speaker 1: and I expect them to come out of it stronger
Speaker 1: than ever.
Speaker 3: Hey, David, we only have about thirty seconds left, but
Speaker 3: got a question from a viewer who wants to know
Speaker 3: if you're going to bring back flights between Los Angeles
Speaker 3: and Westchester anytime soon.
Speaker 2: You're squinting.
Speaker 1: That's a good question.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Westchester is a slotted airport, and so we're bidding for
Speaker 1: some slots actually today, and I hope I haven't heard
Speaker 1: if we got somebody. If you do, that's certainly on
Speaker 1: our list.
Speaker 3: Okay, some news bidding for some slots at Westchester Airport today,
Speaker 3: So come back and let us know how that turns out,
Speaker 3: and certainly I know that many of her viewers who
Speaker 3: fly out of the New York City area looking for
Speaker 3: more flights out of Westchester kind of.
Speaker 2: Love these like these, these hops that you can use
Speaker 2: in these between kind of shorter justtinations, if you will,
Speaker 2: it makes a lot of sense. Founder and CEO of
Speaker 2: Breeze Airway, so well known in the airline industry, David Nielman,
Speaker 2: are thanks to you.