Breeze Airways

Is Breeze Airways safe?

Yes. In five years of flying, Breeze has had no fatal accident and has not lost an aircraft, and it now flies one modern type, the Airbus A220-300. We score it 87, a point above JetBlue and above Allegiant (81). The catch is how short the record is. Breeze started flying on 27 May 2021, it is not on IATA's IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary registry, and as a private company it publishes far less than listed US airlines do. A clean five-year record at a mid-sized airline is good news, but it does not prove as much as two decades at JetBlue's size, so we rate our confidence as medium.

Who runs Breeze, and how new is it?

Breeze was founded by David Neeleman, who earlier started JetBlue. The FAA issued its air carrier certificate on 14 May 2021, and the first passengers flew two weeks later on leased Embraer E190s and E195s. The idea was point-to-point flights between smaller cities that the big airlines skip, and that is still the model: by September 2026 Aviation Week counted more than 300 year-round and seasonal routes to 91 cities, with about 85% of them flown by no other airline.

Breeze is privately held. It has no 10-K with a fleet table, no investor safety disclosures, and no IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit: it was not on IATA's IOSA registry when we searched it on 28 October 2026. Every US airline answers to the same FAA rules, and we found no FAA safety penalty against Breeze. A thinner public record still makes it harder for us to judge, which is why oversight scores 84, the low end of our range for US airlines without IOSA and six below the 90 we give FAA airlines with it.

What happened at Charleston in July 2025?

This is the only event in the accident data, and Breeze did not cause it. On the evening of 18 July 2025, flight MX509 to Norfolk diverted to Charleston, South Carolina, because of thunderstorms at Norfolk. The A220 was parked on the apron waiting for fuel when a new ANA Boeing 787-10, taxiing from the Boeing factory next to the airport for its delivery flight to Japan, struck the Breeze jet's tail with its left wingtip. Two of the 98 people on board had minor injuries.

The A220 needed a new tail fin and rudder and stayed on the ground in Charleston for about two months. In March 2026 Breeze sued ANA for negligence in federal court and put the cost at more than $6.5 million, according to The Post and Courier. The NTSB has published a preliminary report. Under ICAO rules this counts as an accident because the aircraft was badly damaged, but we weigh it lightly: the aircraft was parked and Breeze's crew had no part in it.

Incidents in the air

Breeze's in-flight events have been routine and handled well:

Two other flights made headlines for unruly or suspected security problems involving passengers, in August 2025 and July 2026. Neither involved the aircraft or the crew's flying, and we do not count them. We found no runway excursionRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary, no tail strikeTail strikeWhen the tail of an aircraft touches the runway during take-off or landing, usually because the nose was raised too far or too early.More in the glossary and no evacuation. Breeze is small and private, though, so a quiet record partly reflects how little is published, and we score incidents at 84, not higher.

An all-A220 fleet

Since 7 September 2026, when the last E190 left, Breeze has flown only the Airbus A220-300. Airbus data for August 2026 put 64 A220s with Breeze. Breeze had taken 55 of the 90 it has on firm order, all delivered new since December 2021; the rest are leased, including seven second-hand jets from EgyptAir, five of which were not flying. Breeze publishes no average age, but every A220 it took new is less than five years old. It is one of the youngest fleets of any airline we score.

The A220 is fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary with modern avionics, and Breeze's version seats 137. The weak spot across the type has been its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines, which have needed early inspections and kept A220s on the ground at several airlines. In September 2026 the FAA also proposed an airworthiness directive for fuel hoses on US A220s that may have been fitted with a twist and could wear through. Both issues affect every operator of the type and are being fixed by the manufacturers. Neither is a mark against Breeze.

How to fly Breeze safely

Breeze flies many routes only a few times a week. That has a safety side: when a jet is held for a fault or weather, the next flight can be days away, and there may be pressure to get you somewhere fast. If a flight is cancelled for a technical reason, rebook rather than look for a tight self-made connection to make up time. In summer, Breeze's Florida, Carolina and Caribbean flights often meet thunderstorms. Keep your seat belt fastened whenever you are seated, as the A220 sees the same turbulence as every other jet.

How we scored it

Fleet is the strongest factor (92): one young, modern type. The accident record (88) is clean but short, and we score it the same as Akasa Air, another airline with a clean record of only a few years. Oversight (84) is held back by the missing IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit. Incidents (84) and environment (82) reflect a quiet but thinly reported record and a network of smaller airports. Overall 87.