Is Jacksonville’s flight to Los Angeles coming back next year? (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Budget airliner Breeze says its flights between Jacksonville International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport during the summer worked out well for the company, which plans on resuming the flights next year.
“The JAX-LAX flights performed very well this year,” said Gareth Edmondson-Jones, spokesman for Breeze. “Like most of our transcon services, it’s a summer seasonal route, so it doesn’t run all year. But, it was one of our most popular transcon routes this summer, more than meeting expectations.”
For 2023, Breeze flew 48 scheduled departures from Jacksonville to Los Angeles between May 18 and Sept. 6. Extrapolating to 96 round-trips and the 22,000 passengers Breeze said booked tickets, and that averages out to nearly 230 people per flight.
According to data from the Federal Aviation Administration, in the first three months of the service Breeze flew out 664 people in May, 1,695 in June and 1,602 in July, with 726 arriving in May, 1,660 in June and 1,624 in July.
Those numbers are fewer than JetBlue’s LAX service in 2021 and 2022 at the same time of year. In July 2021, for instance, JetBlue flew 3,181 people to Los Angeles, and brought in 3,280. In July 2022, 2,516 people flew out of JAX to LAX, with 2,453 flying into town.
“While JetBlue has exited the route between JAX and LAX, Breeze has come in to make a go of it with a summer seasonal route,” said Mike Arnot, a spokesman for Cirium and an airline industry analyst. “While there are less flights and seats available than what JetBlue ran, I’m sure residents in Jacksonville appreciated the service, to visit friends and family or for a weekend getaway.”
Breeze service to Los Angeles returns May 2 and will continue through Sept. 3, flying on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.