NORFOLK, Va. - Business is soaring at Norfolk International Airport as four new coast-to-coast routes are taking flight.
Breeze Airways, the new low-fare airline from JetBlue, is adding direct service to:
- Jacksonville, FL (starting May 27, from $49* one way);
- Los Angeles, CA (June 30, from $99* one way);
- Savannah, GA (July 1, from $49* one way); and
- Las Vegas, NV (August 4, from $89* one way)
"We're really excited about the new service. Like I said, Norfolk's been great to us. We currently have nine destinations [so these new additions] bring us 13 destinations from Norfolk," said Breeze Airways Founder and CEO, David Neeleman. We're also gonna be putting on extra flights during the Kentucky Derby, which will be the May fifth through the ninth. So exciting times at Breeze and it's great for Norfolk."
Breeze started flying from Norfolk last summer and currently serves 9 nonstop destinations from ORF. The new routes will be operated with Breeze’s fleet of brand-new Airbus A220s, except for ORF-Sarasota/Bradenton.
Breeze's expansion comes just as jet fuel prices are soaring to an 8-year high, according to the Associated Press. Spot prices for Gulf Coast jet fuel have doubled in the past 14 months and risen one-third just since the start of this year. Since fuel can amount to one-third of airline's costs, it's a big item.
"The good news about this airplane is it's the most fuel efficient airplane in the world, on a per-state basis, and a proceed-basis, brand new technology engines made by Pratt and Whitney just down the road in Connecticut. [It's] really fuel efficient, it's about 600 gallons an hour. So you can divide that by, you know, 126 seats and if it goes up $1, you have to you have to, you know, split that 600 extra dollars by, say 100 seats. So it would be [somewhere between $6 and $10 a ticket more]. It's not something that's going to stop people from traveling, but you know, certainly wish we had lower fuel prices," said Neeleman.
When it comes to booking your next flight out of ORF, Neeleman said, "all these flights start just before Summer, so in May, you'll be able to book all your Summer plans as well to the new destinations or existing ones for the Spring."
