Breeze Airways Embraer E190 Routes Set Through Early September

Breeze Airways is giving its aging Embraer E190s one last summer, scheduling the jets on nine domestic routes through early September — a brief reprieve for a fleet the carrier is phasing out for the Airbus A220.

Breeze Airways has tentatively scheduled its 108-seat Embraer E190 jets on nine domestic routes through early September, a reprieve for an aircraft the carrier is phasing out in favor of the Airbus A220-300.

The flights, running between July 11 and Sept. 7, come from an updated schedule Breeze filed June 28, according to aviation schedule-tracking service AeroRoutes. The routes link leisure and regional markets across the eastern United States.

AeroRoutes described the E190 filings as tentative, meaning Breeze could still swap in a different aircraft type before departure.

The extended flying is a direct result of how quickly Breeze is taking delivery of its A220-300s. The carrier has not received the new jets fast enough to retire its Embraers on the timeline it once set. In January 2025, Aviation Week reported that Breeze was targeting mid-2026 for the E190 phase-out when the fleet stood at 33 A220-300s, 10 E190s and three E195s; the current summer schedule runs slightly past that mark.

Breeze’s long-term fleet plan is built around the A220. The airline assigns its new routes, network expansions and international flights to the larger Airbus jet, leaving the Embraers to fill in on lower-demand pairings where a 137-seat A220-300 is harder to justify.

The nine-route schedule spans the peak summer travel season and the Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-7.

The nine Breeze Airways Embraer E190 routes

Seven routes operate twice weekly through Aug. 31. Five begin July 11:

• Islip, N.Y. (Long Island MacArthur Airport) to Charleston, S.C.
• New Orleans to Charleston, S.C.
• New Orleans to Richmond, Va.
• New Orleans to Savannah, Ga.
• White Plains, N.Y. (Westchester County Airport) to Savannah, Ga.

Two more begin July 30:

• New Orleans to Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• White Plains, N.Y., to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Two additional routes run only during the Labor Day window, from Sept. 4 to Sept. 7, also twice weekly:

• Orlando to New Orleans
• Orlando to Wilmington, N.C.

New Orleans anchors the E190 operation. Aviation Week reported in January 2025 that all of the carrier’s Embraers were based there. The pairings reflect Breeze’s signature approach: twice-weekly service, rather than daily, between secondary and mid-size airports that legacy hubs serve thinly, if at all. Long Island MacArthur Airport sits about 50 miles east of Manhattan, and Westchester County Airport lies roughly 20 miles north of New York City — both convenient alternatives to the region’s larger gateways.

An older jet on borrowed time

Breeze operates 68 aircraft, including 60 A220-300s and eight E190s, according to fleet data from ch-aviation cited by the trade publication Simple Flying. The airline has 38 more A220-300s on order. The two fleets sit at opposite ends of their service lives: the E190s average 18.9 years old, while the A220-300s average 2.6 years.

The aircraft also differ in the cabin. Breeze’s E190 seats 108 passengers, all in economy, in a 2-2 layout with no middle seats. Forty-eight of those seats, in rows 1 through 12, are labeled “XL” for extra legroom, with 33-39 inches of pitch versus 29 inches on standard seats, though the seat width remains the same at 17.6 inches. The jet has none of Breeze’s premium Ascent recliners.

By contrast, the A220-300 carries 137 passengers: 12 Ascent recliners, with a 39-inch pitch, plus 125 economy seats. Travelers booked on the nine E190 routes will not have the Ascent option.

Breeze founder and CEO David Neeleman signaled the wind-down more than a year ago. In an October 2024 interview cited by Simple Flying, he laid out the plan for the Embraers:

“We’ll probably move them out by the end of the year, the first quarter. And then we’ll have the 10 190s that will go off lease starting at the end of 2026. We’ll probably just keep them, pick them off lease.”

The leases are expected to begin expiring late this year, with a full phase-out to follow.

A fast-growing carrier built on underserved markets

Neeleman, who has founded five airlines — Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue Airways, Azul Brazilian Airlines and Breeze — launched the carrier in May 2021 with a fleet of E190 and E195 jets leased from Nordic Aviation Capital. Breeze, based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, in the Salt Lake City area, built its business on nonstop flights between underserved city pairs that larger carriers had abandoned or never flew. As of 2026, it is the only airline on nearly 90% of its roughly 220 routes.

Growth has been rapid. TIME named Breeze one of its 2026 TIME100 Most Influential Companies, noting the airline operated nearly 41% more flights in the first half of 2026 than in the same period of 2025, and the carrier won a 2025 cabin-service award from the Airline Passenger Experience Association. Breeze flew its first international routes in January 2026 — to Cancún, Punta Cana and Montego Bay — on A220-300s, and in June it announced three new cities and 11 new nonstop routes, all on the Airbus jet. Regional lessor TrueNoord delivered three more A220-300s early this year. Neeleman has said he sees room for a fleet of as many as 400 aircraft and has targeted a 2027 initial public offering.

For now, the Embraers still have a summer to fly. After the Orlando flights wrap up Sept. 7, the E190’s run as a scheduled Breeze passenger jet is set to end.