Att'n: Customer Relations
P.O. Box 17435
Salt Lake City, UT 84117-0435

1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583) (in the US)

Website: http://www.jetblue.com/

JetBlue Airways is a low-cost American airline founded in 1999 by CEO David Neeleman. The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills, Queens, a borough of New York City. It has 119 planes and operates to 51 destinations in the United States, along with flights to the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Mexico. It currently has approximately 11,000 employees that are not unionized. Its base airport is New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

In 2001, JetBlue began a focus city operation at Long Beach in southern California near Los Angeles, and another at Logan International Airport, Boston in 2004. It also has substantial operations at Oakland International Airport, Fort Lauderdale, and at Washington-Dulles.  

Since its founding, JetBlue has attained great popularity with the traveling public and after going public in 2002 became a favorite of Wall Street investors.  JetBlue was one of only a few U.S. airlines that made a profit during the sharp downturn in airline travel following the September 11, 2001 attacks. In February 2006, JetBlue announced its first ever quarterly loss. For 4th quarter 2005, the airline lost $42.4 million, enough to make them unprofitable for the entire year of 2005. The loss was the airline's first since going public in 2002. JetBlue also reported a loss in the 1st quarter 2006.

In addition to that, JetBlue forecast a loss for 2006, citing high fuel prices, operating inefficiency, and fleet costs. During the first quarter report, CEO David Neeleman, President Dave Barger, and CFO John Owen released JetBlue's Return to Profitability (RTP) plan, stating in detail how they would curtail costs and improve revenue to regain profitability. JetBlue Airways moved out of the red during the second quarter of 2006, beating Wall Street expectations by announcing a net profit of $14 million.

On February 14, 2007, in the midst of a snow and ice storm striking the East Coast, trouble began at John F. Kennedy International Airport when a JetBlue flight headed for Cancún, Mexico, was stranded on the tarmac for nearly nine hours as icing problems kept the plane from departing. Passengers were kept inside the aircraft for the full nine hours.  Throughout that day, at least nine other JetBlue aircraft were also stranded on the tarmac for more than eight hours with passengers aboard and many JetBlue passengers were put onto flights that were already canceled. JetBlue has since apologized, and has offered refunds and free round-trip tickets to the passengers involved.

As of February 18, JetBlue was still not operating normally, canceling nearly all flights using the E-190.[13] On February 19 with 23% of its operation still cancelled, JetBlue's CEO, David Neeleman, issued another public apology for the cancellations and for his company's mismanagement of the situation.

Neeleman attributed the operational breakdown to "shoestring communications" and an "undersized reservations system". Neeleman said he was “humiliated and mortified” by the system failures and he promised that JetBlue would soon introduce a "Customer Bill of Rights" that would offer compensation for such events in the future.

Neeleman also announced that the revised compensation would be applied retroactively to all passengers affected by the cancellations. According to JetBlue, the cancellations and compensations will total between 20 and 30 million dollars.  The new Customer Bill of Rights was announced on February 20, 2007 and declared retroactive by CEO Neeleman to February 14, 2007 – the beginning of the major delay problems.

 

David  Neeleman
Chief Executive Officer and Director
David Neeleman is our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors. He has served in both capacities since August 1998. Mr. Neeleman was a co-founder of WestJet and from 1996 to 1999 served as a member of WestJet's board of directors. From October 1995 to October 1998, Mr. Neeleman served as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Open Skies, a company that develops and implements airline reservation systems and which was acquired by the Hewlett Packard Company. From 1988 to 1994, Mr. Neeleman served as President and was a member of the board of directors of Morris Air Corporation, a low-fare airline that was acquired by Southwest Airlines. For a brief period, in connection with the acquisition, he served on the Executive Planning Committee at Southwest Airlines. From 1984 to 1988, Mr. Neeleman was an Executive Vice President of Morris Air. Mr. Neeleman attended the University of Utah.

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