Fast-growing budget airline launches 6 nonstop flights to orphaned Spirit routes — including international hotspots

Breeze Airways is swooping in to save abandoned travel routes, following Spirit Airlines’ closure in May — expanding nonstop routes across the US and the Caribbean.

The low-cost carrier is ramping up service to reconnect orphaned airports left in the lurch by Spirit’s collapse and is adding tropical getaways to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

Travelers out of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, will get a direct line to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, starting Feb. 9, 2027 and an Orlando nonstop on May 26 of next year. Myrtle Beach flyers will also score a nonstop flight to Boston starting May 4.

Breeze will hold a monopoly on both Latrobe routes, reintroducing the flights that ceased from the Pennsylvania airport after Spirit’s shut down.

Sunny travelers out of Tampa are in luck: Breeze is adding nonstops to Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ), starting Dec. 19, 2026, alongside a new service to Santo Domingo (SDQ) in the Dominican Republic on June 18, 2027.

The island expansion builds on Breeze’s existing footprint in Punta Cana, San José, and Nassau. They’re also adding a beachy Cancun route set to take off Dec. 19, 2026.

And Breeze will launch direct flights from Tampa to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands starting Dec. 16, 2026.

The Carolinas are also seeing three new nonstop routes.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport will have three new Breeze nonstop routes: Raleigh- Durham on June 29, Myrtle Beach on July 1, and Charleston on July 2, 2027.

The nonstop connection between Buffalo and Raleigh-Durham from Frontier Airlines is stopping this month, so this flight will replace it. 

The Myrtle Beach and Charleston routes are also expected to launch as the only flights from Buffalo. 

Breeze’s approach is to provide nonstop flights between underserved cities instead of offering extra flights to major hubs and large airports. The airline was founded by JetBlue’s establisher David Neeleman.

Spirit Airlines officially ceased all operations and began a wind-down on May 2, 2026, after a multi-year financial decline and a failed $500 million federal rescue deal.

The budget airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice—first in November 2024 and again in August 2025, when it faced roughly $8.1 billion in debt.

Breeze Airways is headquartered in Utah and first launched operations in May 2021 with a flight from Tampa International Airport to Charleston International Airport. The airline is experiencing rapid growth and has been named one of the fastest-growing airlines in the United States.

Breeze Airways was named America’s fastest-growing airline in Time100’s Most Influential Companies of 2026, as it began operating 41% more flights in early 2926 compared to the prior year. 

Breeze currently operates more than 300 year-round and seasonal routes to 95 cities across the US, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The carrier operates an A220-300 fleet.