Breeze Airways adding two new stops from Long Island MacArthur to Florida

Breeze Airways is adding two new flights out of Long Island MacArthur Airport to Florida next year, officials said, giving Long Islanders more options for a sunny getaway.

The low-cost carrier, which began flying out of the Islip Town-owned airport in February, will add flights to Jacksonville and Tampa to its departure and arrival boards beginning in May and August, respectively, a Breeze spokesperson said. The airline headquartered in Salt Lake City was launched by JetBlue founder David Neeleman in 2018 and hit the skies last year.

The two new flights will bring the airline’s routes out of Islip to five, including flights to Charleston, South Carolina; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Norfolk, Virginia. 

“We value our airline partners, and look forward to adding even more destinations in the future,” Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter told Newsday. Carpenter said she is interested in expanding flights out of MacArthur.

The Jacksonville route, which kicks off May 19, will stop in Norfolk for about 30 minutes in what the airline calls its “BreezeThru” service. The Tampa flight, which begins Aug. 18, will stop for a similar amount of time in Charleston. Passengers will not have to change planes. 

“We’re excited to add new options from Islip for our Long Island guests,” Breeze Airways president Tom Doxey said in a news release. 

A Breeze spokesperson declined to say the cost of the flights, which vary by day. Prices on Breeze’s website show flights as low as $88 round trip from Islip to Charleston and New Orleans. 

Breeze Airways is one of three airlines that serves the Islip airport, along with Frontier and Southwest airlines. American Airlines dropped MacArthur flights in September due to pilot shortages, and no fourth airline has stepped in to fill the gap. Carpenter previously told Newsday that MacArthur saw a 64% increase in passengers during the first six months of the year compared with last year.

The airport has undergone renovations in recent years, including a new $8.4 million ground transportation center that opened in April. The airport’s future has been recently weighed by local officials as the town and Suffolk County consider Midway Crossing, a behemoth $2.8 billion project that, if approved, would add a new terminal to MacArthur and connect it to the Ronkonkoma LIRR station.

By Brinley Hineman

brinley.hineman@newsday.com

Brinley Hineman covers the Town of Hempstead and the City of Long Beach for Newsday. She previously was a reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a West Virginia native.