Breeze Airways announced Tuesday that it will nearly double its network, to 77 routes in spring and summer. This is a huge expansion for the U.S.-based start-up which began flying last May.

Salt Lake City is home to the airline. JetBlue AirwaysDavid Neeleman was the founder of’fifth carrier. He created it to serve travel demand in cities not served by large carriers. Andrew Levy founded Avelo Airlines. until 2018 United AirlinesAlso launched in the United States last year was the ‘CFO. It targets markets that are underserved.

Breeze, along with other airlines, have begun to prepare for the strong peak season and summer travel season following two challenging years. Covid pandemic years. Now there’s a huge surge jet fuel to a 13-year high after Russia’s invasion of UkraineThey are evaluating their ability to expand at a time when costs rise.

Lukas Johnson from Breeze, the chief commercial officer of the company, stated in an interview that “it’s not been easy”.

Johnson stated that there was a slightly smaller list of flights than anticipated a few months back and that last-minute adjustments were made by the airline over the weekend. Johnson stated that executives want to keep the schedule unchanged for customers.

Breeze and Avelo are focusing their efforts on domestic leisure travel. However, this has shown to be a more resilient option than international or corporate travel which is still reeling from the pandemic.

Breeze orders 80 Airbus A220-300 Jets from JetBlue. The model’s range and fuel efficiency are appealing to JetBlue. Delta.

Johnson indicated that Breeze is likely to get about one Airbus plane per month. The company has already received two planes from Airbus and will start flying in May. First deliveries include a 36-seat coach, ten extra seats and 80 standard coaches. The 12 second-class seats will be available later, with 45 inches extra legroom in each seat and 80 in coach.

Breeze was first to fly Embraer E190, and E195 jets.

Airbus will be used by the airline to fly long distances, such as transcontinental flights from Savannah, Georgia to Los Angeles or Providence, Rhode Island to Los Angeles.

For some longer routes, such as Las Vegas-Jacksonville, Florida (which Breeze will launch in August), fares start at $99 Johnson anticipates these tickets will go quickly.

Breeze and the other airlines face a difficult task as rising costs force them to balance.

“You don’t wish to raise.” [fares]Johnson stated that you shouldn’t eat too many because your body is still recovering from the pandemic.

Corrected: Breeze’s Airbus A220-300 first delivery jets had a 36-seat First Class, 10 extra legroom seating and 80 standard coaches. The seating arrangement was not correct in an earlier version.