Breeze Airways doubled down on its relationship with Airbus’ manufacturing center in Mobile on Tuesday, and in the process announced a new West Coast connection for Huntsville.

The date chosen for the announcement – 2/20 – was an obvious reference to Breeze CEO David Neeleman’s love of the Airbus A220 family of jets, which are manufactured in Mobile and Canada. Neeleman, who previously founded JetBlue, was one of the earliest and biggest backers of the A220, committing to buy 60 of them for his new startup back in 2018, before Airbus had even begun building them in Mobile.

Breeze began operation in May 2021, and in October of that year Neeleman came to Mobile as his airline took possession of its first made-in-Alabama A220. “The A220-300 is a game-changer for us as we add long haul flights that can average five hours, including transcontinental service,” he said at the time.

A big part of Breeze’s strategy has been to provide direct service to underserved secondary markets, via what Neeleman refers to as “long, thin routes.” Built to carry 100 to 160 people, A220s offer range and efficiency that makes them well-suited for routes where a bigger jet, such as an A320, might not make economic sense. In Breeze’s case, the jets are configured with less than the maximum number of seats, so the airline can offer perks such as first-class seats and sections with extended legroom.

Breeze’s network of airports and connections has grown rapidly. In January, it announced that it would connect Mobile to Orlando and Providence, R.I., starting in April. On Tuesday, it announced that Coastal Carolina Regional airport in New Bern, N.C., would become its 50th airport starting in late May. It also said that on June 14, it will begin flying direct for Huntsville to Los Angeles International Airport.

According to Breeze, it’s the first time in 50 years that Huntsville and Los Angeles have had a nonstop connection. Breeze began service to Huntsville in 2021 with connections to Las Vegas, Orlando and Tampa; it began operations at LAX in 2022 and now “offers a dozen transcon routes” from there.

Breeze has been taking delivery of one or two new jets a month, Neeleman said Tuesday, and now has 22 A220s in service. That will increase to 32 by year’s end, he said, and by that point Breeze will be using A220s for all commercial flights, dedicating its Embraer jets to charter use. He indicated that in the longer run, Breeze will used A220s for everything, including planned international flights.

Neeleman said that Breeze had previously placed firm orders for 80 A220s and was extending that to 90, with options for 30 more. That was met with gratitude from Airbus Americas CEO Jeff Knittel. “Obviously, the additional 10 airplanes are important to us and we’re here to help you to continue to succeed,” Knittel said. “So we just want to say thank you from everyone at Airbus for your commitment to Airbus.”

Knittel and Neeleman both referred to the fact that Breeze would be flying into Mobile’s new international airport, near the Airbus campus at the Brookley Aeroplex.

“Mobile, as Jeff mentioned, is where the airline’s 220 fleet is assembled. So we’re really excited,” said Neeleman. “There’s two airports in Mobile, one of them’s kind of convenient where the airplanes are actually made and the other one’s outside of town. And we’re going to be the first airline operating at BFM, which is the airport where the planes are manufactured. So they’ll be able to visit their birthplace on a very frequent basis.”