JetBlue Founder David Neeleman on How New Airline Moxy Will Change the Way We Fly
CN Traveler
David Neeleman has worked for or founded six airlines, and also created a software company that developed the first e-ticket.
Innovators' chronicles our treks behind the scenes with travel's disruptors and free thinkers—the people who lead rather than follow, who break things, take risks, solve problems in fresh ways. Through all that, they make, for the rest of us, the future of travel.
Southwest
acquired close to a majority stake in TAP Air Portugal
using the working name Moxy
60 Airbus A220 jets
new type of plane
“bring humanity back to air travel”
You’ve started up or gotten involved in more than six airlines at this point—and yet now, you want to launch another new airline in the U.S.? Why? What keeps on drawing you into this business?
Kennedy Airport
With your new domestic airline, Moxy, you are entering a very different landscape from when you started JetBlue nearly 20 years ago. Instead of going up against, say, six or seven big network airlines, it’s now three huge network airlines that dominate the market. How are you going to meet that challenge?
nonstop
More People Will Be Visiting Portugal in 2019—Here's Why
So would you consider this an “ultra-low cost” carrier, then, in the mold of a Spirit or Ryanair?
But how is this going to improve the experience? Technology can only go so far in giving customers what they need.
Uber
“Here are all the flight options you have: Would you like to pick another flight, or would you like to get a full refund?”
In the technology vein, do you have a dream team coming together—are you developing a proprietary algorithm or app that you think will really give you the edge over the competition?
[Editor's note: Navitaire is the current incarnation of Open Skies, the reservations platform Neeleman started in the 1990s that, among other things, helped develop ticketless technology.]
I DOUBT WE WILL HAVE A SINGLE ROUTE WHERE WE WILL HAVE A COMPETITION.
The phrase ‘clean sheet of paper’ resonated when you were starting up JetBlue. Does it feel like that again?
But the U.S. is a more mature market from an aviation standpoint than Brazil. What types of routes and markets are you looking at? Are you going to focus on secondary, or even tertiary, markets in the U.S.? Could you go international?
A220
Hawaii
Portugal
Florida
How are you going about deciding, though? Which airports and cities are you considering?
What about the airports that lost out in the merger and consolidation wave, like Cleveland, Memphis, St. Louis—is that the kind of opportunity?
[Laughs]
How is the process of naming the airline coming along? With JetBlue it sort of happened, but with Azul you had a contest, right? Which way will it go this time?
the name that got the most votes
[Laughs]
Currently you have airlines or airline projects on three different continents. How do you stay on top of things?
one of the most on-time airlines in the world
TAP is in a turnaround mode
Chicago
[Editor's note: TAP Air Portugal just announced that it will fly five weekly nonstop round-trips, year-round, between San Francisco and Lisbon beginning June 2019.]
TAP is a 70-year-old foreign flag carrier, after all; it’s as far from a startup as you can get. How do you innovate in that context?
Lisbon
Morocco
Europe
stopover program
Other than your involvement, what’s the connection between your Brazilian and your Portuguese airlines?
We codeshare, we switch customers, we connect.
Back to Moxy. When you do plan to file for authority to start up your new airline with the Department of Transportation?
At JetBlue you famously had a corps of ‘ladies in bunny slippers’ working as part-time reservationists from their homes in Salt Lake. Will you have something like that this time?
What’s the category killer for your new airline? With JetBlue you had live TV, leather seats, more legroom, and all these amenities that no other airline offered on domestic flights. How are you going to stand out now?
But why do you think you’ll be able to charge half the price?
people living in a lot of these small cities have to connect through hubs
San Diego
What bugs you the most about flying today, and what’s the single thing you would change if you could?
first class or premium class
bags forcibly taken away from them
check their bags
One pain point in air travel that seems highly resistant to a fix is the boarding process; it only seem to get worse. Any thoughts on how it could improve?
there really isn’t much you can do
overhead bins
What did the aircraft manufacturers think of your idea?
[Editor's note: They did.]
damages your bag
PEOPLE WANT CHOICE, AND THAT’S WHAT WE’RE GOING TO GIVE THEM.
One thing you do have control over is how many seats to put on the plane. What kind of legroom and seat pitch are you considering?
just gave 800 million euros back to their shareholders
It’s a very different model than Southwest and JetBlue where, at least at the outset, the idea was that it was one-class, everyone gets the same treatment.
[Editor's note: another key feature of the A220 is that it's designed to have just one middle seat per row, not the usual two.]
How fast are you taking delivery of the planes?
[Editor's note: Neeleman has ordered 60, so it will take five years to get all of them.]
Back to the name. How urgent is it that you come up with a brand?
You must use a lot of airline-aviation apps. How well do they do the job?
just the basics
So what worries you the most?
What about JetBlue? What will it be like going up against your former airline—and one that you still have a stake in?
Robin
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/jetblue-founder-david-neeleman-on-new-airline
