Breeze Airways has retired its last Embraer E190, ending the role of the second-hand Brazilian jets that launched David Neeleman’s latest airline more than five years ago.
The final aircraft, N120BZ, left the fleet on September 7, according to Planespotters.net data. The E190 had been with Breeze since July 2021 and was the last of the type still listed in service with the U.S. carrier.
Breeze now operates scheduled services exclusively with the Airbus A220-300. Airbus’ August 2026 fleet data list 64 A220s with the carrier, although five of them are not currently flying.
The five parked aircraft are former EgyptAir A220s acquired by lessor Azorra and subsequently placed with Breeze. They remain part of the carrier’s fleet despite not currently being used in regular service.
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The change completes a transition that was planned before Breeze carried its first passenger. The E-Jets were never intended to become the long-term backbone of the airline, but they provided a readily available and relatively inexpensive way to get operations started while Breeze waited for its new Airbus aircraft.
Neeleman launched commercial service on May 27, 2021 with E190s and E195s. Breeze initially had 10 E190s and three E195s available and used them to establish its network of nonstop routes between smaller U.S. markets.
The first A220-300 did not arrive until December 2021, nearly seven months after the airline began flying. Breeze had already committed to the type before starting operations and subsequently expanded its firm order to 90 aircraft, with another 30 options.
More than 5,000 flights
The Embraers consequently became something of a starter fleet. Breeze says its E-Jets operated more than 5,000 flights before the first A220 arrived, and they remained useful long after the Airbus fleet began expanding.
Their retirement took considerably longer than originally expected. Breeze initially planned to have an all-A220 scheduled operation by the end of 2024, but kept the E190s and E195s for charter work and some scheduled routes, particularly shorter and lower-demand services.
In January 2025, Air Data News reported that the airline had moved the final retirement to mid-2026. At that point it still operated 10 E190s and three E195s, all based in New Orleans.
The E195s left first. The larger Embraer variant disappeared from the Breeze fleet during 2025, while the E190 continued flying into this year. By March, only eight E190s remained alongside the growing A220 fleet.
The withdrawal then accelerated. N112BZ left in March, followed by N126BZ and N115BZ in May, N116BZ in June and N114BZ in July. N128BZ departed in August, leaving N120BZ as the final E190.
Neeleman chose Airbus this time
Breeze’s fleet choice is particularly notable because of Neeleman’s long history with Embraer.
At Azul, which he founded in Brazil in 2008, the E-Jet was fundamental to the airline from its first day of operations. Azul launched with E190s and E195s and later became the launch operator of the E195-E2, the largest member of Embraer’s second-generation E-Jet family.
Breeze went in another direction. Neeleman selected what was then Bombardier’s CSeries as the future aircraft for his new U.S. airline, with the initial commitment announced in 2018. Airbus took control of the program that same year and later renamed the aircraft A220.
The choice put Breeze firmly on the Airbus side of a market segment in which the A220 and Embraer E2 increasingly compete. Breeze eventually increased its firm commitment to 90 A220-300s.
Not all of the A220s now associated with the carrier came directly from that Airbus order. Breeze has also turned to leasing companies to expand the fleet.
Earlier this year, TrueNoord delivered three factory-new A220-300s to Breeze through a sale-and-leaseback transaction. More unusually, seven of the 12 A220s formerly operated by EgyptAir were placed with Breeze by lessor Azorra, with the last of those aircraft delivered in June.
Jackson Square Aviation delivered another leased A220-300 at the beginning of September and plans to provide a second aircraft in October.
According to Airbus’ August orders and deliveries data, Breeze has 90 firm A220-300 orders with the manufacturer, of which 55 had been delivered by the end of the month. The additional leased aircraft bring the total fleet recorded by Airbus to 64 A220s.
