On June 25, Town of Islip supervisor, Angie Carpenter, alongside Breeze Airways co-founder and vice president, Jim Smith, announced Fort Myers, Fla., as a new destination from MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma.
In addition to Fort Myers, Breeze has direct flights to Charleston, Norfolk, Richmond, Vero Beach, Raleigh, Durham, and Portland, Me.
Additional elected officials from the Town of Islip included councilman John Lorenzo (R-District 4), councilman Mike McElwee (R-District 3), town clerk Linda Vavricka, and receiver of taxes, Andrew Wittman among others.
State Sen. Alexis Weik (R-8th District) was in attendance and Carpenter addressed the need for state and county collaboration for expansive projects like MacArthur airport.
“I’m so honored that members of the state Senate are here, they understand how important Islip MacArthur airport is, what a regional asset it is,” said Carpenter.
“We know why it’s great to live here, but we need people to get people outside to see this is a great, great destination,” said Carpenter. “At MacArthur airport air service development is top priority, our customers and his community make it very clear what they want, need, and will support—additional year-round flight options and safe travel as they do travel more conveniently from their hometown airport, ISP. They want to be able to attend more life events—weddings, bar mitzvahs, all the wonderful family events. Our customers sometimes have second homes, many times in Florida and businesses that require frequent trips and certainly it is so much more convenient traveling out of ISP than those other airports… a community that loves its hometown airport and loves to travel.”
“All of this could not be done with the vision of our town supervisor and our town board members,” said airport commissioner Shelley LaRose Arken.
Smith thanked the attendees and quipped that with everyone there for the press conference, “we could fill up an A220 and fly down to Fort Myers!”
“I hope everyone who calls central and eastern Long Island home pays a tremendous debt of gratitude to supervisor Angie Carpenter, commissioner LaRose Arken, and deputy commissioner Rob Schneider, for their passion and endless, tireless hard work, and for all that they do for this community and this airport,” said Smith.
“We’ll be offering airfares as low as $89, if you purchase your tickets before July 1,” announced Smith and was greeted with resounding applause from the crowd. “We have nine destinations from Islip airport… we’re just celebrating our third birthday and it’s been a complete total success... Breeze is defining what it means to be seriously nice in an industry that all too often is not.”
Weik said, “It has been so exciting to be part of this activity today. This has been my home for my whole entire life and I am proud that it’s entirely within my senate district… any time our airport grows, that’s a good day here in Islip.”
Carpenter concluded with urging community members to let airlines know about new flight destinations from MacArthur they would like to be included as “they really do listen.”
Breeze was established in 2021 to “provide nonstop service between underserved routes across the U.S. at affordable fares,” according to the company’s mission statement.
Since its founding in May 2021, Breeze has been ranked as one of the U.S.’s best domestic airlines for the last two years by Travel + Leisure magazine’s World’s Best Awards (No. 2 in 2022 and No. 4 in 2023).
With a fleet of Airbus A220-300 aircraft, seamless booking, no change or cancellation fees, up to 24-months of reusable flight credit, and customized flight features—including complimentary family seating—Breeze’s goal is to “…make it easy to buy and easy to fly,” according to their website.
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