Trent Porter (Breeze Airways) Interview
On Wednesday, August 25, I had the privilege to interview Trent Porter. Mr. Porter is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the new U.S. startup Breeze Airways. He has worked in the aviation industry for over 16 years working for U.S. Airways, Allegiant Air, and Breeze Airways. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Joshua Kupietzky: What is your background in aviation?
Trent Porter: So I started out in the aviation world at U.S. Airways back in 2006 and I was first a senior financial analyst at U.S. Airways. I primarily focused on their mergers and acquisitions, capital, and long-range planning, things like that. So it gave me a great introduction to the airline industry, and in 2009, I went to Allegiant. And at Allegiant, I worked primarily in their FP and A [Financial Planning & Analysis] department for about six or seven years, and then took on a broader finance role where I took on procurement, special projects, corporate real estate, and strategic analysis. And I was there for roughly ten years. And then I joined Breeze back in 2019 and we recently launched in May. It has been a fun journey.
JK: How did you become interested in pursuing aviation as a career path?
TP: So I actually kind of fell into it. My wife had a job in Phoenix and she loved it and so I just started to look around the valley to see which places were hiring and I applied at U.S. Airways. I did not know how much I would love the aviation industry. I thought I wanted to work internationally. I went to Thunderbird and did a Masters in international management while I was there, because I had those desires to work internationally. But the dynamic nature of the industry pulled me in and it has not spit me out yet. I have loved all of it.
JK: Starting a venture like Breeze when travel has sort of been under attack because of the virus, what has demand been like here in the early going for Breeze?
TP: So the demand has far surpassed our expectations especially right off the bat. We launched our website seven days before we started flying which is really unheard of and it really is a short booking window. But because of the publicity and you know David Neeleman’s experience in the industry, we had a lot of interest and were able to meet our demand targets early on. And now, most recently, with the resurgence of the Delta variant, we have seen some softness in our bookings similar to what the rest of the industry is seeing, so, you know, we are monitoring that and looking at what we can do to change that current situation. But that is where we are at now.
JK: Why did you choose to go to a startup airline like Breeze Airways?
TP: Well, two things. Number one, you know when you get the opportunity to work with the best airline entrepreneur on the planet, you jump at it. David Neeleman was a really big part of it. And then, number two, while I was at Allegiant, I got to know Lukas Johnson really well. He started about a month after I did and we worked very closely together for seven, eight years and I learned to really respect him and I have seen what he has been able to do with things that nobody else could do. So, you know, the opportunity to work with him again and really build something from scratch, you know—I could not pass up that opportunity.
JK: Currently, Breeze Airways is private, but long-term, do you see Breeze making a debut on the public market?
TP: Oh absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. I do see us going public over the next five years sometime. I think we are going to be opportunistic with where the markets are at and, you know, where evaluations are. But for us, you know, when we are looking at what we potentially could do, we will want to go public at some point.
JK: Breeze’s introductory fares were just $39. I am Curious to know how long those $39 fares are going to last. When do you envision them jumping? And what do you think they're going to jump to?
TP: Well you will see those types of sales come periodically. So for example we recently did another 39 dollar sale just to kind of stimulate demand going into the fall. It is a historically low leisure travel month so you know we are doing all we can to stimulate demand there. So you will see those come and go and it really depends on which market you are looking at. But you can see price points between seventy to one hundred dollars for the fare and again it is going to depend when and where you are flying. But yeah we are generally targeting that area to be able to fill our planes.
JK: What makes Breeze Airways a high-flex airline?
TP: Yeah so during the pandemic a lot of the airlines did eliminate their cancelation or change fees. However, what we have seen over the last six months is they have reinstituted those fees. We are not in the business of penalizing somebody if their plans change. You know we are looking at it and looking at our guests and seeing how can we help you and by providing that flexibility and making it just part of who we are. We believe that we are addressing a part of the market that unless we are in a pandemic we are kind of the unique airline doing that.
JK: How has the Delta variant and the decreasing travel demand affected Breeze Airways?
TP: You know we are a management team that likes to change and likes to be strategic with the decision making that we are doing. And you know we want to make sure we have our finger on the pulse of the market and with the shift in demand you have seen some capacity come out and it is one where we are going to be constantly evolving our network. You know we don’t want to be static, we don’t want to be caught on our heels. So you have seen and probably will see some more changes that are related to the Delta variant impact on the industry.
JK: This past week it was announced that Breeze Airways secured 200 million dollars in funding. What will that money be going towards?
TP: Yes, so what it will really be going towards is us being opportunistic with the E190s, E195s that come on the market. We do believe that they [the E190 and E195] are good assets at the right price. You know, it allows us to have some flexibility in our models that otherwise we would not have in only operating brand-new A220s. When you operate an expensive asset, you have to fly it like it is an expensive asset. And by going opportunistically after E195s that are priced where we can fly them how we want to fly them, it just complements the network and the product.
JK: Why was the Embraer E190 chosen instead of any other aircraft?
TP: It really came down to pricing. It came down to us looking at it and saying, “Okay, this is kind of an out-of-favor asset [and] the pricing today is appealing to us, and that only means that the pricing is going to get better for us going forward as they become more out of favor.”
JK: Breeze Airways has flown over 100,000 passengers since you started operations in May. Did you expect this type of demand?
TP: We hoped that we would. It is one where, you know, where we planned to build a model that is low-cost and, should that demand not be there or should the demand go away because of things like the Delta variant, where we are able to manage through it. So, you know, right now, we do feel we have built a model that can manage that demand that we expected as well and that we are seeing, as well as what we may experience in the near future.
JK: Are there any plans for Breeze Airways to fly internationally in the next few years?
TP: Absolutely. It is on our road map. It is known that we will not be flying there until we get the 220s and we go through all the certification processes that we would need to. But absolutely, we are excited about some of the international opportunities the 220 can afford us.
JK: Once the A220s are delivered, do you plan on phasing out the E190s?
TP: So we will keep them as long as they are economically viable. You know, like I mentioned, as long as we can get decent pricing on the aircraft, we should fly them. You know, if it becomes a situation where it is just too complex of an operation or drives too much cost into the operation, then yeah, we would look at pulling them out. But for right now, absolutely, we do plan on flying them.
JK: What was the hardest part of starting an airline during the pandemic?
TP: It is the unknown, right? It is the ambiguity. Are you going to be launching something that no one sees value in because no one is wanting to travel? And when exactly should you be launching? You know, if you wait too long, are others going to be ranking up their capacity too much to take out some of the opportunities you might have? So, trying to guess at that is probably the most difficult [part]. I mean, the other piece is you are kind of at the mercy of the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] and getting your certificate and so, you know, it is one where you can’t necessarily plan and say, “Okay, we are going to fly March 15th” when you don’t have your certificate in hand. So it was a combination of those two things. We definitely wanted to be flying before summer and we did meet that goal. And that is kudos to our operations team in being able to get the certificate done and get us where we needed to be on June 1st.
JK: Have you seen a lot of competition on routes since you have started them?
TP: A little bit, but nothing major. For the most part, we have kind of been ignored, which is a good thing. That is exactly where you want to be when you are a new carrier.
JK: What is the customer base Breeze Airways is targeting?
TP: We target leisure travelers primarily, visiting friends and relatives as well, and then small businesses would be another category I would throw in there.
JK: What do you consider as your greatest achievement in the aviation industry?
TP: That is a good question. I would consider the number of people that I have hired being in positions of decision-making and executive-level positions at the companies I have been at. That has to be the greatest achievement. To see their successes has been something that’s been very rewarding for me.
JK: What are your long-term career goals in the aviation industry?
TP: Just to have. To have fun with what I am doing. It is exactly what I am doing here at Breeze. I love working with David Neeleman. I could learn from him for years and I know that this opportunity is going to yield different opportunities in the future but my goal is to have fun.
JK: Have you learned anything new about leadership from the pandemic?
TP: I have. It is interesting, you know. It is one where people oftentimes say they will remember the way you made them feel more than they remember what you did. But unfortunately sometimes you have got to do some hard things that are going to make people feel uncomfortable to be able to preserve their job. So that is something that I have definitely learned firsthand, that some decisions are going to be very unpopular. But if people peel back the onion and they say, “Oh wow, they were looking at preserving our jobs rather than furloughing everybody.” You know, that's really the reward, whether people recognize it or not. For me, that is again one of the rewarding parts of my job: knowing that I was able to help and contribute to hundreds of people getting employed at Breeze.
JK: What do you see Breeze Airways doing in the future?
TP: That is a good broad question. I like it as the last question. I see us revolutionizing different parts and aspects of the airline industry. And I think, you know, some of those are on our road map and others are just going to appear and we have got to be ready to capture them. So we are ready to change the model of what people think when they think of leisure flying. So, you know, we hope everybody stays tuned and we are around to deliver on these items. Yeah, we are excited for the future.
