Background: Breeze Airways is a new airline operating in the United States since May 2021. I am always interested in trying out new airlines, even though my opportunities are now fewer and farther between, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I noticed that Breeze operates to CMH-John Glenn Columbus International Airport, and Columbus was a city I was planning to visit in August, so I decided to try them out and make a routine, short domestic trip a little more exciting.
To complete the trip, I decided to fly the other direction into LCK-Rickenbacker International Airport, the other airport serving Columbus, Ohio, primarily a freight airport, with passenger service only provided by Allegiant.
Flying out of ORF-Norfolk International Airport in Virginia would complete my itinerary nicely, enabling me to try out both the LCK airport and Breeze. My outbound flight was ORF-LCK on an Allegiant A320, and my return flight was CMH-ORF on the Breeze Airways E190.
Please enjoy the report, and I look forward to your comments.
CMH-ORF
Breeze Airways MX407
Departure: 13:35 (actual 13:38)
Arrival: 15:00 (actual 15:05)
Actual Block Time: 1h27
Actual Flight Time: 1h15
Seat: 3D
E190
I arrived to CMH-John Glenn Columbus International Airport about three hours before departure. The Breeze check-in area was deserted. I had printed my boarding pass before coming to the airport, so I headed straight for C-gates security. My TSA Precheck hadn't come through, so I joined an extremely slow-moving security line. After 25 minutes I was airside. It was 11:10. Boarding was scheduled for 13:05, and departure for 13:35. I waited at my gate, C49, the closest to security. Tracking my inbound plane, it had begun the day by flying ORF-CMH, and then CMH-BDL, and it was now departing BDL to come back to CMH to then operate my flight to ORF. All flights today had been on-time, a good sign for my flight to be on-time, too.
The Breeze check-in area at CMH:
I was excited to try a brand-new airline, only in operation a few months. At booking I chose the Breeze 'nicer fare' which includes bags and seat assignments, and I had chosen a seat in the exit row, row 14 on the E190. A few weeks before my flight, the seat map changed to a different one, with the exit row now being row 19, and the first three rows having 1-2 seating. None of the aviation blogs on Breeze mention this seat map, and the Breeze website leaves a lot to be desired. Researching it myself, I was able to find out that some of the Breeze E190 aircraft came from Air Canada, and this new seat map is that of the Air Canada E190. So it appears that Breeze hadn't done any cabin retrofit to remove the Air Canada cabin in this case. That means those first three rows of 1-2 seating are the former Air Canada business class. One was left for assignment, so I switched from my exit row to seat 3D. I was excited to get a business class seat for a super low price, on Breeze, an airline which currently offers only economy seating. This Air Canada seat map remained all the way up to my flight.
My aircraft N132NK arrived from BDL at 13:00. Indeed it is an E190 transferred to Breeze from Air Canada. N132NK began its life with Air Canada in 2007 as C-FNAI. It left Air Canada in 2020 along with the retirement of all of Air Canada's E190s. It joined Breeze in late July 2021, less than a month before my flight.
My aircraft arriving to CMH:
At the gate in CMH:
Boarding was called at 13:18 for families with small children and guests needing extra time and assistance. I guess this pre-boarding call came as a surprise, because despite many such qualifying guests in the gate area, no one approached for boarding. The gate agent quickly moved on to Zone 1, which was my boarding zone. I was among the first onboard my ex-Air Canada E190, and sure enough I found the lovely business class cabin, three rows of 1-2 seating, behind which was an actual bulkhead and then the coach cabin.
ex-Air Canada E190 Business Class:
Seats 3DF:
Seat 3A:
It was really nice to get a business class seat! The business class seating had cloth seats typical for E190 business class. There were electrical outlets marked 'inop' and no screens, even though I thought most Air Canada planes did have screens, but then I figured they would have also been 'inop' here like the outlets. Boarding continued at a relaxed pace and there was no backup in the aisle. Boarding was announced as complete in ten minutes. In the business class cabin, the load was 7/9 with 1F and 2A vacant.
Legroom shot:
Safety card:
The captain came to the front of the cabin to make his welcome announcement. He explained we would have five to ten minutes taxiing out to takeoff from Runway 10L. Then we'd have a flight time of 1h6. He was expecting good weather and a nice ride. The door was closed, the flight attendant's welcome message introduced the crew, and then they performed a manual safety demo.
Cabin overview:
Push back came at 13:38, and we taxied directly to the start of 10L, the same runway the plane had arrived on. Our takeoff was at 13:46 from a stop, and I enjoyed decent pushback into the seat and decent speed.
When we reached 10,000 ft, a recorded announcement advised that approved electronic devices can now be used.
The flight attendants began in-flight service first with a tray of small bottles of water, and then a tray of Kind bars. This little complimentary snack was very much appreciated.
In-flight snack:
The captain provided an update when we crossed 33,000 ft. We were about 290 miles west of Norfolk, and expecting to land in 45 minutes, to be at the gate on-time. He expected a nice ride for the remainder of the flight.
I relaxed listening to music the rest of the flight.
The captain provided another update 60 miles west of Norfolk, to say we'd be landing in about 15 minutes. The weather was currently clear skies and 85 degrees, but there was some rain about 30 miles south of Norfolk. "Thanks for flying with us on Breeze Airways."
The flight attendants passed through the cabin to collect trash, and then announced our initial descent into Norfolk.
We had a gusty descent as some cloud cover moved into the Norfolk area. We landed at 15:01 and parked at gate B16 at 15:05.
At the gate in ORF:
This had been an enjoyable flight, on a new airline, with the surprise business class seats. I'd be happy to fly with Breeze again, particularly after they receive their new A220 fleet. I'm a little concerned with IRROPS on airlines like these, especially considering that Breeze doesn't even publish a customer service phone number, but in this case, everything had gone perfectly. If you can find a route served by Breeze, give them a try!
