Breeze Airways, the low-cost US carrier best known for connecting smaller American cities, is quietly building an international network — and it is about to get much bigger. From October onward, the airline will launch seven new routes beyond the US border, taking its international map from a handful of routes to 13.
The headline addition is Tampa to San José, Costa Rica, a brand-new destination for Breeze and its longest international route from Florida. It starts on October 3, 2026, running twice weekly on the airline's A220-300s, and faces no direct competition. Roughly 24,000 round-trip passengers flew that city pair indirectly last year, so there is a clear pool of travellers waiting for a nonstop option. Breeze is the sole operator on the route.
Just before Christmas 2026, two more routes from Tampa follow on December 19: Cancun and Montego Bay, Jamaica — another first for the airline's network. Both run twice weekly. Cancun will put Breeze up against JetBlue's daily service, while Montego Bay has no nonstop rival (Frontier last flew it in 2022/2023).
Then in early January 2027, the Midwest and mid-Atlantic get their turn. Pittsburgh gains three-weekly flights to both Cancun and Punta Cana from January 7, going up against thin weekly services from American and, soon, Southwest. Columbus to Punta Cana starts January 8 with two weekly flights, and Richmond to Cancun lands the same day — a route that has not seen nonstop service since USA 3000 pulled out in 2005.
Tampa is clearly the anchor. Once everything is running, it will host five of Breeze's 13 international routes — nearly half of the airline's departures beyond the US. (Flights from Tampa to St Thomas don't count here: as part of the US Virgin Islands, that's technically domestic.) The airline's international push only began in January 2026, with Cancun flights from Charleston and Norfolk, followed by Providence, New Orleans, Raleigh/Durham to Punta Cana, and Tampa to Nassau.
The early numbers show a work in progress. Through June, Breeze carried just over 20,000 international round-trip passengers at a 59.5% load factor — modest next to nearly four million domestic passengers at 80.9% full. The standout is Raleigh/Durham to Punta Cana, which accounts for about a third of all international traffic with a much healthier 73.8% load factor. One route has already been cut: Providence to Cancun, which carried barely 1,400 round-trip passengers at under 50% full.
For travellers, the appeal is straightforward: nonstop flights from mid-sized cities that usually require a connection, on a modern A220, at low-cost fares. More than half of the new routes — seven of 13 — have no head-to-head competitor, which is good news for anyone flying from Richmond, Columbus or Tampa who wants a beach escape without a layover. Book early for the winter 2026 and early 2027 start dates; introductory fares on new Breeze routes tend to be the cheapest you'll see.
