James lives and breathes route development. Educated in Air Transport Management at Loughborough University and Cranfield University, James has a PhD in Airline Strategy and Economics. James was Market Opportunity Analyst at London Luton Airport and Chief Analyst at anna.aero. He taught airline strategy and economics to undergraduate and postgraduate students for five years and has worked closely with multiple carriers on route and market intelligence projects. He is based near London, UK.
From October onward, Breeze Airways will launch seven new international routes. When they all take off, 13 links beyond the United States border will exist, including five from Tampa International Airport (TPA). That's the only Florida airport from which Breeze currently operates internationally.
Given the small scale of Breeze's current international network, the seven upcoming markets represent a huge increase proportionally. Note that Breeze will also fly from TPA to St. Thomas. However, as that place is in the US Virgin Islands, which is a US territory in the Caribbean, it is considered domestic. It is thus not counted.
Breeze Is Launching These Seven International Routes
As all of them have already been announced, this article simply summarizes what is happening. Additions include the Costa Rican capital of San José, which is served through Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO). This destination is brand-new to Breeze's network, although only one route is currently available.
It is the sole operator on the airport pair. Booking data shows 24,000 round-trip indirect passengers last year, which Breeze will obviously grow from nonstop flights, relatively low fares, its generally regarded product, and hopefully strong promotions at both ends of the route. Virtually all routes increase traffic when nonstop flights materialize. I could see flights from Raleigh/Durham International Airport (RDU), which is Breeze's most-served airport, to SJO (26,000 passengers).
|
Launch Date (October 2026+) |
Route |
Breeze Airways' Operations* |
Head-To-Head Competition?** |
|---|---|---|---|
|
October 3, 2026 |
TPA to SJO (new destination for the airline; the airline's longest international route from Florida) |
Two weekly A220-300 |
No. Condor stopped in TPA en route to/from SJO until 2000 |
|
December 19, 2026 |
TPA to Cancun |
Two weekly A220-300 |
Yes, JetBlue (daily) |
|
December 19, 2026 |
TPA to Montego Bay (new destination for the airline) |
Two weekly A220-300 |
No. Previously served by Frontier in 2022/2023 |
|
January 7, 2027 |
Pittsburgh to Cancun |
Three weekly A220-300 |
Yes, American (weekly) and Southwest (weekly from February) |
|
January 7, 2027 |
Pittsburgh to Punta Cana |
Three weekly A220-300 |
Yes, American (weekly December-April) and Southwest (Saturday in June/July) |
|
January 8, 2027 |
Columbus to Punta Cana |
Two weekly A220-300 |
Yes, Southwest (weekly in March/April) |
|
January 8, 2027 |
Richmond to Cancun |
Two weekly A220-300 |
No. Last flown by USA 3000 in 2005 |
|
* Known as of October 12 |
** Based on data from Cirium Diio and the US Department of Transportation (DOT) |
That Makes 13 International Routes For Now
Cirium data shows that Breeze's inaugural scheduled service beyond the US border was January 2026, from Charleston and Norfolk to
Cancun International Airport (CUN). Both remain part of its map today. Flights from Providence to CUN followed the next month, along with New Orleans to CUN. Service from RDU to Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ) materialized in March, followed by TPA to Nassau in June.
The following map shows all of Breeze's known international network. TPA will have almost one in two of Breeze's international departures. Only one international link has ceased to exist, which is Providence to CUN. DOT data shows that only 1,364 round-trip passengers were transported, with an extremely poor load factor of 49.8%.
Seven of the 13 routes (54%) will not have head-to-head competition with another carrier. Some markets without direct competition were served before, including TPA to Nassau by the now-defunct Silver Airways in March 2025. However, others were brand-new, including Charleston and Norfolk to CUN.
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The International Market Had 0.5% Of Passengers
Recall that Breeze's first scheduled international operation took place in January 2026. When all such routes are combined, the carrier transported 20,624 round-trip passengers through June, but with a load factor of only 59.5%. It was, after all, a brand-new endeavor. In contrast, its domestic market had just shy of four million passengers, with 80.9% of seats filled.
The most-trafficked market was RDU to PUJ. This link had 6,677 round-trip passengers and about a third of the airline's total international traffic. 73.8% of seats were filled, substantially more than for the market with the second-highest load, Norfolk to CUN (51.8%). It is unknown what the average fare was across these and the other routes.
