Is Breeze Airways Safe? Safety Record, Fleet & 2026 Status
Breeze Airways (IATA: MX, ICAO: MXY, callsign MOXY) is a U.S. low-cost carrier founded by airline entrepreneur David Neeleman, flying a young Airbus A220 fleet on point-to-point routes between mid-size U.S. cities. This is a factual profile: how airline safety is actually established, the industry-wide base rate, Breeze's certification and fleet, its route geography, and 2024-2026 operational notes.
First, the base rate
Before any single airline, the number that actually answers "is it safe to fly" is the industry-wide one. IATA's 2023 Annual Safety Report calculated that at that year's accident rate, a person would need to fly every day for 103,239 years to be involved in one fatal accident. Scheduled commercial aviation is, per passenger-kilometre, one of the safest forms of transport ever measured — and every scheduled airline operates inside the same layered system of independent audits and regulatory oversight described below.
FlySafe does not issue a safe-or-unsafe verdict on any airline. What follows are published, source-attributed facts, plus context on what those facts mean. For the full picture, see Is flying safe? the statistics and aviation safety statistics 2026.
TL;DR
- Zero fatal accidents, zero fatalities and no hull losses since commercial flights began on 27 May 2021.
- FAA Part 121 Air Carrier Certificate issued 14 May 2021 — the first brand-new U.S. Part 121 startup certified in over a decade.
- Young, modern fleet: ~48 Airbus A220-300 plus a handful of Embraer E190s being phased out toward an all-A220 scheduled fleet (targeted around mid-2026).
- AirlineRatings gives Breeze a 5-of-7 safety score — full marks on accident, pilot and safety-standards criteria, losing 2 points only because it is not IOSA-registered (common for non-IATA U.S. low-cost carriers).
How airline safety is actually established
"Is this airline safe" isn't something a passenger ranks by feel — it's established by a stack of independent audits and continuous regulatory oversight that every scheduled carrier operates inside. Here is what each layer checks; Breeze Airways's own certificates, audit status and record are in the attributed profile below.
Every scheduled passenger airline holds an Air Operator Certificate from its national civil aviation authority and is under continuous oversight — crew licensing and duty-time limits, maintenance and continuing airworthiness, dispatch and operational control. In the U.S. this is the FAA (Part 121); in Europe, EASA with national authorities; comparable regulators apply elsewhere. Source: FAA / EASA / national CAAs.
An internationally recognised evaluation of an airline's operational management and control systems, renewed on a two-year audit cycle; registration is a membership condition for IATA. Whether a specific carrier is IOSA-registered is stated in its profile below. Source: IATA IOSA Registry.
Operational events are investigated not by the airline but by an independent state authority — the NTSB in the U.S., the AAIB, BEA, BFU and other national boards elsewhere — whose public reports are the primary record. Source: national safety investigation boards.
Breeze operates an all-Airbus A220-300 scheduled fleet — among the youngest average aircraft age of any U.S. carrier — with a small number of Embraer E190s being phased out. Aircraft age alone is not a safety indicator when maintained under the applicable continuous-airworthiness programme — the maintenance regime, not the calendar, is what the regulation governs. Source: FAA; news of record.
Safety Record
FlySafe does not issue a safe-or-unsafe verdict on any airline; the following are published, source-attributed facts. Where independent bodies publish safety ratings, they are reported with attribution below, and accident investigation is handled by the relevant independent authority. Since its first commercial flight in May 2021, Breeze Airways has recorded no fatal accident, no fatalities and no hull loss; aviation-safety databases (Aviation Safety Network, AeroInside) log only minor incidents. Three of note, all of which ended safely: a September 2022 Embraer E190 returned to New Orleans after a pressurisation issue and landed without injuries; a February 2024 A220 was struck by lightning on approach to Pittsburgh and landed safely; and in July 2025 a parked Breeze A220 at Charleston was struck on the tail by the wingtip of a taxiing ANA Boeing 787-10 — an event caused by the other aircraft, not by Breeze's operations, with two passengers checked for minor injuries.
U.S. accident investigation is handled by the NTSB, with FAA oversight. AirlineRatings publishes a 5-of-7 safety score for Breeze — full marks on its accident, pilot and safety-standards criteria, with 2 points withheld only because the carrier is not IOSA-registered, which is common for non-IATA U.S. low-cost carriers.
Regulatory & Certification Status
Breeze holds a U.S. FAA Part 121 Air Carrier Certificate, issued on 14 May 2021 — the same standard that governs every scheduled U.S. airline, and notably the first new Part 121 startup certified in more than a decade. It received U.S. DOT economic authority before launch and is subject to continuous FAA oversight, inspections and operating specifications. Breeze is not currently registered for the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), which is typical for non-IATA U.S. low-cost carriers; that single gap is the only reason AirlineRatings withholds 2 of its 7 points.
Route geography
Long-haul routes are drawn as great-circle paths — the true shortest paths on a globe, which is why they look curved on a flat map. Hover a route or hub for detail; click the highlighted arcs to see why they bend. This is a geography map of how flight routes work, not a risk map.
Fleet
Breeze is moving to an all-Airbus A220-300 scheduled fleet — the A220 (formerly the Bombardier C-Series) is a modern fly-by-wire jet that entered commercial service in 2016, and the Aviation Safety Network database records no fatal accident for the type in airline service to date. As of early 2026 the in-service fleet is roughly 56 aircraft: about 48 A220-300s plus a small number of Embraer E190s being phased out (the larger E195s were retired by 2025), with the all-A220 transition targeted around mid-2026. Breeze holds 90 firm A220 orders with options for many more, keeping its average aircraft age very low. As with other A220 operators, some aircraft have at times been temporarily out of service due to industry-wide Pratt & Whitney engine inspections.
Company & 2026 Status
Breeze was founded by David Neeleman, the serial airline entrepreneur behind JetBlue, WestJet, Azul and Morris Air, and is headquartered near Salt Lake City, Utah. Its model targets underserved point-to-point routes between mid-size U.S. cities, and it now serves 85+ destinations, adding its first international flying in early 2026 (including New Orleans–Cancún).
On finances, Breeze reported its first quarterly operating profit in Q4 2024 and its first quarterly net profit in Q2 2025, with management projecting full-year 2025 profitability. As a privately held airline it does not publish audited financials, so those figures are company-reported rather than independently verified.
What a passenger actually controls
Which certificated airline you pick moves the needle far less than most people expect — they all fly inside the same regulatory floor above. The one safety variable genuinely in a passenger's hands is the seatbelt: most turbulence injuries on commercial flights are to people who were unrestrained when seated. Keep it fastened whenever you are in your seat, even with the sign off.
Related Pages
Sources
- FAA — Part 121 Air Carrier Certification
- NTSB Aviation Accident Database
- AeroInside / Aviation Safety Network — Breeze Airways incident records and A220 type record
- AirlineRatings — Breeze Airways safety profile (5/7)
- News of record on the A220 fleet transition, 2025 profitability and 2026 international launch
FlySafe reports publicly available data and does not issue safety assessments, recommendations or verdicts on any airline. Aggregated from regulator filings, audited safety reports and news of record; reviewed 2026-07-03. Not commercial commentary, not investment guidance. See Terms of Service.