Mainers who want to fly south this winter will have another destination to choose from.
Budget airline Breeze Airways will offer nonstop flights out of Portland International Jetport to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in Florida, beginning Nov. 20, according to Zachary Sundquist, the assistant director of the jetport.
Those flights will depart on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
“We are thrilled to add Sarasota to our list of non-stop Breeze destinations,” Paul Bradbury, the airport’s director, said in a Wednesday statement. “Breeze has been an incredible partner adding ten destinations in a little over one year. We are grateful for their continued investment in our market.”
Wednesday’s announcement expands the slate of flights Breeze Airways now offers out of Portland.
Other seasonal Breeze Airways destinations include Charleston, South Carolina, on Mondays and Fridays; Fort Meyers, Florida, on Wednesdays and Saturdays; Islip, New York, on Wednesdays and Saturdays; Norfolk, Virginia, on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; Orlando, Florida, on Wednesdays and Saturdays; Pittsburgh on Mondays and Fridays; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, on Mondays and Fridays; Tampa, Florida, on Wednesdays and Saturdays; and Westchester County Airport in New York on Thursdays and Sundays.
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.
Breeze Airways also will offer flights from Bangor International Airport to Orlando International Airport on Thursdays and Sundays, starting Oct. 3, and flights to Tampa on Mondays and Fridays, starting Oct. 4.
It also will offer seasonal flights to Fort Myers on Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting on Oct. 5.
