How I Built This with Guy Raz

JetBlue Airways: David Neeleman (2019)

May 31, 2021

David Neeleman, the innovative founder of JetBlue Airways and Azul, shares his entrepreneurial journey, marked by a passion for customer service and a commitment to revolutionizing air travel. He discusses launching JetBlue with a vision for budget-friendly flights to underserved cities and high-tech amenities. Neeleman candidly reflects on the challenges he faced, including a major crisis during the 2007 ice storm and how it led to transformative changes in customer care, along with his ongoing ventures in aviation.

01:05:02

Episode guests

David Neeleman

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

3min

The Vision Behind JetBlue: A New Era in Airline Travel

4min

From Childhood to Mission: Lessons in Entrepreneurship

8min

From Timeshares to Airlines: An Entrepreneurial Journey

21min

From Setback to Startup: The Journey Begins

5min

Revolutionizing Airline Ticketing and Customer Experience

16min

Crisis to Opportunity: JetBlue's Transformation

13min

The Launch of Breeze Airways and Entrepreneurial Inspirations

3min

In the mid-90s, David Neeleman wanted to launch a new airline. He had already co-created a regional airline out of Salt Lake City that was acquired by Southwest. And despite his admiration of Southwest's business model, Neeleman felt there was a market for a different kind of budget airline. He envisioned flights to cities other budget airlines avoided and excellent customer service, with high-tech amenities. In 2000, he launched JetBlue and in its first year, the company flew over 1 million people, and cultivated a loyal customer following. Then came the 2007 Valentine's Day ice storm. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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