Get to Hollywood in a Breeze: 1st direct flight from Akron-Canton to Los Angeles takes off
Trucks sprayed water over a Breeze Airways plane Thursday morning at Akron-Canton Airport to salute the first direct flight from the CAK airfield to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
Ravenna resident Daniel O'Connell said it wasn't until he entered CAK to take off for a California vacation on Thursday morning that he discovered he was on the first CAK-to-LAX flight and that a celebration was happening.
"This is kind of cool, actually, to be part of this," O'Connell said in the airport shortly before boarding, surrounded by airport and airline executives and community partners near a stage, cake, rubber plane figurines and balloons.
The flight marked the longest ever out of CAK and an expansion of the partnership between the airport and Breeze, which first started operating at CAK in 2021 and now is its largest carrier, said Akron-Canton Airport President and CEO Ren Camacho.
At a Thursday morning event at the airport, Camacho thanked partners in the Commercial Air Service Restoration Program, a statewide initiative to expand air service led by JobsOhio.
"Our community and state's commitment to air service and Ohio stands out to airlines like Breeze, especially when carriers like Breeze see how dedicated the local stakeholders like you all invest time and resources with the community assets, such as your local airport," Camacho said.
Other event speakers included some of the key players in bringing the new direct flight to fruition through public-private partnerships: John Wirtz, CAK board chair; Stuart Moynihan, senior director of network and strategic partnerships at JobsOhio; Bill Koehler, Team NEO CEO; and Breeze President Tom Doxey.
Also involved in that effort were the Greater Akron Chamber and the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Jeff Dafler, president and CEO of the Canton Regional Chamber, told the Beacon Journal he believes increased air service in the area will be a boon to the economy and help local businesses grow.
"It's part of the reason why the Canton Regional Chamber and the Greater Akron Chamber came together to help raise the private matching dollars for the air service incentive grant that JobsOhio provided to help get Breeze rolling here and support the establishment of new routes," Dafler said.
Dafler added: "This is one of those days when you see concrete evidence of the work, and we can all be proud of the collaboration that helped make this possible."
Cerena Cernik of the Portage Lakes area and Blake Sugarberg of Akron said they were taking the Thursday flight to meet a friend in San Diego who recently completed a doctoral degree and is now working with the U.S. Navy.
Sugarberg said he found it "amazing how many people we've talked to that actually want to come to Northeast Ohio as a destination, just to visit."
He said he and Cernik like flying out of CAK because they can usually get to their gate in a brisk 10 minutes.
Cernik said they've taken nonstop Breeze flights out of CAK before, to Orlando International Airport.
"I've been telling everybody about it, so most of my friends have already flown Breeze a few times already," Cernik said.
As CAK's largest carrier, Breeze flies 36% of the passengers who come through the airport, said Lisa Dalpiaz, the airport's vice president of air service and business development.
Dalpiaz added that Breeze has 10 nonstop flights out of the airport, adding that some are seasonal.
The flight from CAK to LAX is about five hours.
For O'Connell's part, he said he's traveling by himself to embark on some Los Angeles sightseeing, including movie studios and sets, the Hollywood sign and Point Dume.
"In-N-Out Burger, Pink's Hot Dogs, the Randy's Donuts they filmed in 'Iron Man 2,' when he was in the doughnut — that's there in Inglewood — SoFi Stadium," he said.
Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at pwilliams@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Breeze Airways, Akron-Canton Airport celebrate first flight to LAX