Breeze Airways to double operations at T.F. Green, launch international flights out of R.I. by 2025. – The Boston Globe

Utah-based Breeze Airways announced this week that it plans to double its presence at T.F. Green Airport over the next five years, making the Warwick airport one of its largest hubs in the United States, if not the largest.

The low-cost airline, which began flying out of T.F. Green three years ago, currently offers 132 weekly flights to 18 destinations. It serves more destinations than any other airline at T.F. Green.

Under the current expansion plan, the airline would offer 200 weekly nonstop flights to 35 destinations by 2029. The airline’s founder and CEO, David Neeleman, said the expansion would include adding flights to “three international or US territory cities.”

“We haven’t been able to fly internationally yet because we don’t have our final approval from the FAA,” Neeleman said in an interview with the Globe. “We hope to have it done this year, and then we’ll start flying internationally. We’re saying three destinations. There could be more, but I think we’ll add one to start and keep adding from there.”

Breeze flies between smaller, secondary airports such as Norfolk International, West Palm Beach International, and Westchester County. When it launched in 2021, its business model was to offer point-to-point service between these underserved airports. In New England, Breeze also operates out of Manchester-Boston Regional, Bradley International in Hartford, and Portland International Jetport in Maine. Service to Bangor International is scheduled to begin this fall. Currently, the longest flight Breeze offers out of T.F. Green is a seasonal service to Los Angeles.

“We reach places that you could previously only get to out of Logan,” he said.

Providence has been an important market for Breeze. The airline’s service was launched there in July 2021, and it became a base shortly after. According to Neeleman, who founded JetBlue and Azul, Breeze is expected to reach profitability this year as it aggressively expands its fleet. Breeze took delivery of its 25th Airbus A220 this month and plans to add 65 more A220s over the next five years.

To increase its footprint at T.F. Green, the airline is receiving $2.9 million in tax credits from the state with the understanding that it will create a minimum of 58 jobs in the first year, increasing annually to 116 jobs by year five. The credits are part of the state’s Qualified Jobs Incentive program, created to expand the workforce of companies operating in the state.

“It’s just a win-win deal,” Neeleman said in describing tax credits. “The airport has been underserved for a long time, and we have a lot of airports we can fly to and a lot of places we can put it and put our service, and so we just always do win-win deals where the city wins, and we win. It’s as simple as that. It’s a good deal for everybody.”

Neeleman said the T.F. Green expansion will increase the number of Breeze employees in Warwick from approximately 200 to 400. The airline will also base 12 aircraft at the airport.

“This is an exciting day for Rhode Island,” Governor Dan McKee said in a statement. “We’re proud to be home to one of the top 10 airports in the world, and we’re even prouder to have Breeze.”

The airline announced a sale to celebrate its third anniversary with 33-percent-off fares. Earlier this year, it launched a co-branded credit card with Barclays.

Christopher Muther can be reached at christopher.muther@globe.com. Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther.