Interview: JetBlue Founder's Future With Azul Airlines and TAP Portugal
Photo Credit: David Neeleman's post JetBlue project, Brazil's Azul Airlines, has struggled in recent years because of Brazil's sluggish economy. But he predicts the airline will report a third-quarter profit. Azul Airlines
Skift Take
When David Neeleman was pushed out of JetBlue Airways, the carrier he founded, in 2007, it wasn't clear he would have a next act. But Neeleman, who now controls two airlines, is doing just fine.
Future of Passenger Experience
To better understand the challenges facing airlines in an age of fluctuating oil prices, rapid growth, and changing passenger expectations, our Future of Passenger Experience series will allow leaders in the industry to explain their best practices and insights.David Neeleman did not leave JetBlue Airways under the best of circumstances.
It was 2007, not long after the airline's Valentine's Day crisis, when a New York-area ice storm crippled JetBlue's operations for days. All airlines have meltdowns at some point but this was worse than most, with many passengers stuck on planes for hours, and others unable to get help from customer service agents. A few months later, after making an apology tour, Neeleman, the company's founder, resigned as CEO.
But Neeleman is a lifelong airline guy — he co-founded a U.S. airline called Morris Air in 1984, when he was in his mid-20s and sold it to Southwest Airlines in 1993 — and again this time it did not take him long to reappear. By 2008, he had started a new airline, Brazil's Azul Airlines. A low-cost carrier, Azul is similar to JetBlue in its strategy, paint job and onboard product (and color, too: "azul" is blue in Portugues and Spanish).
Neeleman is CEO, and Azul is Brazil's third-largest airline, with more than 100 aircraft and a network stretching to Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Lisbon, Portugal. With Brazil in recession, Azul has struggled recently, but Neeleman said the carrier's finances are improving.
Increasingly, Neeleman is focusing on a new project, TAP Portugal. Last year, an investment consortium led by Neeleman and others bought a controlling interest in the ailing European carrier, which had been controlled by the national government. The investors were not permitted to buy as much of the company as they had wanted, and the government still owns part of it. But Neeleman said his group controls enough of it to make key decisions. "We have the lion's share," he said.
Neeleman now splits his time among three places — Connecticut, Brazil and Portugal.
We spoke with Neeleman recently to discuss Brazil's economic situation, his investment in TAP and his opinions about JetBlue. This is the fifth in a series of airline CEO interviews we plan for the next several months.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Skift: Overall, has the economic climate improved a little bit in Brazil recently? How is demand for Azul? Are things getting better?
David Neeleman: Yeah. A lot better. A lot of things have happened in Brazil. For our financial situation, what's improved the most is the exchan
