Jet Blue

Executive Summary

"The challenges and skeptics were many. Critics scoffed at our dream of creating a successful low-fare airline based in New York City. They said we'd never find quality employees, that no one would want to fly domestically from JFK, and that we'd never be able to offer both low fares and a product that includes new planes, leather seats and live satellite TV with DIRECTV programming. Twenty-two million customers later, we're proud to be proving the critics wrong." --David Neeleman

JetBlue's Service

Based in New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, JetBlue Airlines is a low-fare, transactional base airline carrier whose mission is to provide their customers with exceptional service. They launched their first flight back in February of 2000. JetBlue is a discount carrier that serves a little over 32 cities around the country. Some of those cities include: Las Vegas, Boston, Phoenix, and Tampa.

Differential Advantage

Since JetBlue's planes are so new (Airbus A320), they have a short-term cost advantage because of reduced maintenance and repairs. In addition, the Internet has increased JetBlue's profits because people are given the opportunity to book a flight in the comfort of their own home or office. Not only that, each of JetBlue's aircraft

have individually built in TV screens in the back of the seats with over 30 channels of DirecTV.

Required Investment

David Neeleman received "$130 million in capital funding from investors such as Western Presidio Capital, George Soros, and Chase Capital." After he received the funding, he felt it was time to "bring his airline formula to the world's largest aviation market,