Flying High: How JetBlue Founder and CEO David Neeleman Beats the Competition... Even in the World's Most Turbulent IndustryISBN: 978-0-471-65544-2
Hardcover
312 pages
July 2004
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As veteran airlines writer James Wynbrandt shows in his excellent
new book, Flying High, it took JetBlue's hyperkinetic free spirit
David Neeleman to extend the revolution started by Southwest's Herb
Kelleher into a heady new frontier—by putting the discounters
in a nose-to-nose rivalry with the major carriers. A devout Mormon
with nine children, Neeleman, from Salt Lake City, learned about
customer service as a kid on a milk crate in his grandfather's
convenience store. When customers demanded a product his granddad
didn't have, young David would bolt out the back door to Safeway to
buy it. After a stint as a missionary in Brazil, Neeleman—a
college dropout with ADD—started a travel agency, a charter
airline to Hawaii, and a low-cost carrier called Morris Air, which
he sold to Southwest. After just five months, Kelleher fired
Neeleman, who'd barge into meetings and loudly lecture Southwest's
proud managers on where their airline was screwing up.
By the time he founded JetBlue in 1999, Neeleman had already pioneered many of the boldest innovations in aviation, including e-ticketing, automatic ticket machines, and at-home reservation staffs. Backed by farsighted investors, among them George Soros, JetBlue busted the biggest myth in airlines by proving that a low-cost carrier can also beat the majors on service. While Wynbrandt clearly idolizes Neeleman as a curious blend of saint and gladiator, his idol does deserve our gratitude. It took this hyperactive dreamer to put a fresh face on a tired industry, to show at long last that customers, not old-line carriers, are charting the future of commercial aviation. (Fortune, June 28, 2004)
By the time he founded JetBlue in 1999, Neeleman had already pioneered many of the boldest innovations in aviation, including e-ticketing, automatic ticket machines, and at-home reservation staffs. Backed by farsighted investors, among them George Soros, JetBlue busted the biggest myth in airlines by proving that a low-cost carrier can also beat the majors on service. While Wynbrandt clearly idolizes Neeleman as a curious blend of saint and gladiator, his idol does deserve our gratitude. It took this hyperactive dreamer to put a fresh face on a tired industry, to show at long last that customers, not old-line carriers, are charting the future of commercial aviation. (Fortune, June 28, 2004)