Breeze Airways, a low-cost carrier based in Utah, announced Tuesday it will begin offering flights from the Mobile International Airport to Orlando and Providence, R.I., starting in April.

The flights to Orlando will start approximately one month after Houston-based Avelo Airlines will suspend its Orlando-bound flights from the downtown Mobile airport. Avelo, which started the flights from Mobile to Orlando on May 31, will stop with the direct flights to Orlando on March 4.

Chris Curry, president with the Mobile Airport Authority, said the experience with Avelo attracted Breeze to Mobile to offer a service to Orlando. The fare for the initial flight departing the Mobile International Airport on Wednesday, April 10, is $39.

Departures and returning flights are scheduled twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

“Avelo demonstrated it could be successful with direct service,” Curry said during a news conference announcing Breeze Airways entry into Mobile. He said the Mobile Airport Authority’s data showed that 45 percent of passengers who flew to Orlando aboard Avelo were from Mobile County, and another 20 percent were Baldwin County residents.

The twice-weekly flights to Orlando will stop for approximately 30 minutes before going to Providence, a brief layover that Breeze Airways refers to as a “BreezeThru” flight.

The initial prices on the Providence flight are a bit more expensive. A one-way flight on April 10 to Providence costs $155, according to the company’s website. A return flight to Mobile on Saturday, April 13, is listed at $524.

It is the first known time that an airline has offered a connection from Mobile to Providence, the largest city in Rhode Island and its state capital. Providence and Mobile are similar in population size.

Bradley Byrne, president & CEO with the Mobile Chamber, said the flights to Providence will put passengers close to Amtrak train stations with close proximities to Boston and New York City.

“Anytime you add a destination, it’s a huge benefit,” Byrne said. “You are opening up the market. We will push this hard. I’m sure there are a lot of people in Providence who don’t know a lot about Mobile. This is an opportunity for us to sell our city to a part of the world that probably doesn’t know much about us.”

Breeze Airways’ entry into Mobile also highlights the A220-series of planes that are made at the Airbus USA manufacturing plant near the international airport. The company will fly A220 planes from the Mobile airport that were made at the Mobile-based Airbus plant.

“The A220 is a 137 seats and has three different classes of configuration,” Curry said, referring to Breeze Airways’ three-tier offerings that include the following:

• “Nice” – flights with the lowest fares, and offer passengers one carry-on bag
• “Nicer” – flights that offer more legroom, one checked bag and one carry-on. For the initial flight to Providence, the “Nicer” option costs $80 more.
• “Nicest” – flights that offer even more legroom, two checked bags and one carry-on. For the initial flight to Providence, the “Nicest” option costs $162 more. It also offers priority boarding.

Breeze Airways will also be the only commercial carrier offering flights from the Downtown Mobile Airport. The airport, featuring a temporary two-gate terminal, will be replaced in November 2025, by a new $381 million, five-gate commercial terminal that has the potential to expand to 12 gates.

The new commercial airport at the Brookley Aeroplex south of downtown Mobile will allow the Mobile Airport Authority to complete a swap of services from Mobile Regional Airport, which is where legacy carriers currently fly out of in west Mobile. Supporters of the project, including the city and the Airport Authority, say they believe the new airport close to downtown will allow for a greater expansion of destinations from Mobile.