Mainers scheduling their summer travel plans will have a new option when flying out of Portland.
Beginning May 24, the budget airline Breeze Airways will offer nonstop flights from the Portland International Jetport to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, according Zachary Sundquist, the assistant director of the jetport.
That service will operate seasonally on Mondays and Fridays.
Additionally, Breeze Airways will offer flights to Jacksonville, Florida, with just one stop and no change of plane, also beginning May 24.
“We are thrilled to have Breeze Airways announce non-stop service to Raleigh/Durham,” Paul Bradbury, the jetport’s director, said Tuesday morning. “In just eight months, Breeze has grown to eight non-stop destinations from Portland … We appreciate the continued investment into the Portland market by Breeze and are looking forward to the upcoming summer season!”
Tuesday’s announcement expands the slate of flights Breeze Airways now offers out of Portland. The airline offers nonstop flights to Orlando on Wednesdays and Saturdays, to Tampa on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and to Fort Meyers, Florida, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Other Breeze Airways destinations include Charleston, South Carolina, on Mondays and Fridays; Pittsburgh on Mondays and Fridays; Norfolk, Virginia, on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; and Islip, New York, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Breeze Airways flights to Islip, Norfolk and Pittsburgh will be offered seasonally during the summer. Fort Meyers flights are offered seasonally during the winter and spring.
The Portland airport is the state’s busiest. It saw record traffic in 2019, when more than 2.18 million traveled through there. But that traffic took a big hit in 2020 amid the global pandemic, with passengers traveling through the jetport falling to 792,571, the lowest than at any point in the past 15 years. That rebounded to 2.21 million last year, according to data posted on the Portland International Jetport’s website.
