Who owns jet blue airlines

We tend to think of the airline industry as a business with a high barrier to entry -- all those pricey planes and terminals. But entry is not nearly so difficult as keeping an airline flying profitably over a long period of time, as dozens of defunct carriers Braniff, anyone? Neeleman's ability to spot opportunity and pair the right customer service with exacting operational efficiency has helped him defy the odds more often than any other airline entrepreneur.

So has a sort of tunnel vision that comes with attention deficit disorder -- a disability that led to one huge career setback but also fueled his success. The other is: 'David, It's not that simple. Pan Am co-founder Juan Trippe was a true titan who made air travel glamorous in the s and introduced the jet age. Howard Hughes, the wildly eccentric entrepreneur, airplane designer, and Hollywood producer, largely created TWA. Fast-forward and there's Richard Branson, the music mogul who brought his personal Cool Britannia brand to Virgin Atlantic.

And let's not forget Herb Kelleher, a fun-seeking Texan lawyer who loved people, cigarettes, and Wild Turkey not always in that order and co-founded Southwest. Then there's Neeleman, just a guy from Salt Lake City. And it is he -- a casual, approachable fellow in a fleece vest with all the menace of a suburban dad -- who may prove to be the most relentless innovator of all. Breeze, whose inaugural flight will take off in mid-May, is a reimagining of what high-quality, low-cost air service can look like.

Ever since JetBlue, Neeleman has, like the kid peering into the circus tent, longed to get back into the U. But just wanting something doesn't make a business plan, so for years he looked for the right angle and moment.

The opportunity that revealed itself was this: The major players had not only plumped their profits in the past decade, but had also plumped their costs. Their labor contracts had grown fatter -- which was only fair, given their growing profitability. To compensate for rising costs, the big carriers were diverting more travelers through their hubs, where they could fill the bigger planes that they were buying.

Neeleman had seen this before -- it's a repeating cycle in his industry -- and he knew it opened the door to flying directly between smaller markets. Allegiant, Spirit, and Frontier, which created the ultra-low- cost-carrier ULCC segment, had already taken advantage of that opening. Neeleman's angle: Use technology to offer better service and a little more class than the ULCCs but keep fares just as low -- and sum it all up for people by calling Breeze "Seriously Nice. So it is that Breeze takes wing in what is either the best or the worst time in history to start an airline.

Best because vaccinations and herd immunity will allow people to travel again freely. Breeze will be waiting for them with a fleet of 13 Embraer s and Es. The company will add long-range Airbus s in the fall.

In the air, Breeze won't pile people on top of one another, won't slam them with excessive fees, and will offer three seating categories: Nice, Nicer, and Nicest -- the last a value-priced business-class option on the As. At launch, Breeze will fly 49 direct routes from 15 cities, beginning with Tampa to Charleston, North Carolina; other cities include Pittsburgh, Nashville, and New Orleans. Think Rust Belt to Sun Belt.

The linchpin is a passenger app that Breeze will use to lower costs while removing friction and enhancing the customer's experience -- from reservations to check-in to baggage to ordering food or a ride home. He was born in Brazil, where his father was first a Mormon missionary and then a journalist. After growing up mostly in Utah, Neeleman, too, got sent to Brazil for his mission.

After he came home, a University of Utah classmate related how a friend had time-shares in Hawaiian condos that he couldn't move. Neeleman, who got started in business at the age of 9 in his grandfather's grocery, asked for a meeting.

In the deal he struck to market the time-shares, he'd pay the owner a set price per night, and anything above that was his to keep. As a young man, he served in Brazil as a Latter-Day Saints missionary, then studied accounting at the University of Utah. But he dropped out of school before graduating in favor of entrepreneurial pursuits. Before long, Neeleman was running Morris Air, an innovative, successful low-fare carrier that was the first to offer ticketless reservations.

He was just 33 years old at the time. Bound by a five-year non-competition agreement, in he went left the U. Neeleman told Sales and Marketing Management that it took 30 months of planning to get his next project, dubbed "New Air," in the skies. It also took quite a bit of money. Talented executives were lured from other airlines. Other executives were recruited from Southwest. The company copied large chunks of Southwest's playbook.

Its cabins would have only one class of seats. It did, however, order Airbus A narrowbody jets instead of the similar Boeing s used by Southwest, and reportedly got a huge discount from the Europeans in the bargain. Its ambitious first order was for 25 brand new jets with options on another On many routes these jets would compete with turboprop-driven planes, deemed less comfortable and perceived as less safe by passengers. As if that were not enough, JetBlue aimed to undercut other airlines' fares by an average of 65 percent.

JetBlue claimed to be primarily aiming to stimulate air traffic like Southwest, rather than stealing existing passengers from the established airlines. For its base, JetBlue chose John F. The carrier received an exemption allowing it operate there between the peak hours of 3 p. Neeleman observed that the non-peak hours were quite suitable for quick turnarounds. Travel Agents.

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