David Neeleman, chief executive of Breeze Airways (MX, Salt Lake City), has downplayed the impact of tariffs on its new A220-300 fleet, although he acknowledged that manufacturing these aircraft in Canada does come with an aggregated cost at the moment due to the ongoing trade war the United States government has been pursuing with the rest of the world.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Neeleman acknowledged that the new jets coming in do now face higher tariffs as they are manufactured at Airbus’ assembly line at Montréal Mirabel, Canada.
“Montréal still falls into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), where parts in the plane right now are being tariffed, like the wings,” he said.
However, he highlighted Airbus’ efforts to gain leverage with the US government, via its assembly line at Mobile Downtown, Alabama, where it currently employs 2,000 people and plans to increase the workforce to 3,000.
“What’s really important about this whole tariff situation is that the United States is a huge exporter of aviation. We have a six-to-one ratio. We exported USD124 billion worth of product and imported only USD20 billion,” he explained, adding that the worst thing that could be done is to endanger the aviation industry when there is so much of a surplus.
Despite the tariffs, Breeze Airways continues seeing the A220 Family aircraft as the best option for its business model, allowing it to obtain, on average, the same revenue as low-cost competitor Spirit Airlines but with 100 fewer seats per departure.
ch-aviation fleets data shows that Breeze operates thirty-seven A220-300s along with ten E190s and three E195s, with the latter type set to be retired shortly. It still has fifty-five more A220-300s awaiting delivery.
Finally, the company expects to be profitable during the second quarter of this year. While profitability could be higher, and there is softness in the US market, particularly in the transcontinental segment, fuel prices are not aggravating the crisis. “There is a little softness, but it is not being offset by fuel. So we are in really good shape,” he said.
