Skift Take
It may not be a good time to be a budget airline in the U.S. but that's not slowing the growth of David Neeleman's latest venture, Breeze Airways.
Skift Global Forum returns to New York City on September 26-28, 2023. Discover this year’s event at the link below.
U.S. airlines have scheduled too many flights this fall for the number of travelers, Breeze Airways founder and CEO David Neeleman said. This is pushing down airfares just as fuel prices are rising and putting pressure on airline profits.
"There’s a lot of people traveling [this fall] but you just have to fill that extra 20% of seats," he told The Airline Observer founder Brian Sumers at the Skift Global Forum in New York on Wednesday. "Fares have come down as fuel prices have gone up, and that’s challenging.”
U.S. domestic airline seats are scheduled to increase nearly 8.4% from 2022 levels in the fourth quarter, according to Cirium Diio schedule data. That comes after a 8.6% increase in the third quarter. Compared to 2019, capacity will be up 2.5% in the September quarter and 4% in the December quarter.
The number of travelers was up on a