JetBlue Airways - Details and Fleet History

JetBlue Airways is an Amerian low-cost carrier, owned by JetBlue Airways Corporation. Founder David Neeleman wanted to realize his vision of a low-fares airline with amenities and complementary snacks. The airline expanded quickly and today owns more than 125 aircraft. 54 destinations in the US and some other countries are reached. Main hub is JFK International Airport, New York.

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JetBlue Airways has been founded on July 14, 1999, by David Neeleman, a former Southwest Airlines employee. His idea was to form a low-cost airline like Southwest, but with amenities like in-flight entertainment and complementary snacks. Neeleman immediately ordered 25 A320s and acquired an option for another 50, which was the biggest pre-launch order ever recorded and made the new airline famous from the very beginning.

The first flight took place on January 11, 2000, from New York to Fort Lauderdale. Other launch destinations were for example Tampa, Orlando and Oakland. Every time a new Airbus arrived new routes from New York (like San Diego, Las Vegas, Denver and New Orleans) were added immediately. Also, the destinations were directly connected with each other.

JetBlue was one of the few American airlines, which remained profitable after 9/11. Thus they expanded rapidly, ordering another 50 A320s. To finance all this they went public in 2002. Since then, JetBlue has become one of the most popular airline stocks, reaching an extremely high market capitalization.

Also in 2002, JetBlue acquired LiveTV, which enabled them to provide 36 channels of live satellite TV for every seat in their aircraft. This, combined with a good service and complementary food, made JetBlue so different from other low-cost carriers.

In the next fleet expansion, Neeleman decided not to order Airbus again but chose the Brasilian Embraer 190, in order to reach destinations the Airbus is too big for. This concept caused another big route network expansion when the first planes were delivered in 2005, as many smaller cities wanted to be connected for example to New York by the blue airline.

In 2004, JetBlue operated its first international flight to the Dominican Republic. Later, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Bermudas were added.

In 2005, the airline suffered from a high decrease in profits due to a rise in fuel costs, less competitiveness due to higher costs for amenities and technical problems with their new Brasilian aircraft. Nonetheless, JetBlue announced to continue expansion.

During the last quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006, JetBlue reported high losses. Thanks to massive cost cuts and higher revenues they were able to return to profitability in the second quarter of 2006. The airline has planned to continue this strategy of cost-cutting to increase competitiveness. A so-called Return-to-Profitability plan (RTP) was published. According to this, for example one row of seats is removed from the airline’s A320s, as this lightens the plane and reduces the necessary number of flight attendants by one, which will offset the loss in revenue. Total loss for 2006 was one million dollars, compared to 20 million in 2005.

In May 2007, Dave Barger was appointed CEO, retaining his position as President, while JetBlue founder David Neeleman became non-executive Chairman of the Board.

JetBlue possesses a fleet of more than 125 Airbus A320 and Embraer 190 aircraft. 54 destinations in the US and other countries are reached.

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