Flying High (eBook)

James Wynbrandt is a New York-based author and award-winning aviation and business reporter. He is a regular contributor to numerous high-profile aviation publications, including Smithsonian Air and Space, Plane & Pilot, General Aviation News, Southern Aviator, and Pilot Journal. A licensed pilot, Wynbrandt has been following JetBlue since the company's founding. His articles on business and aviation have also appeared in the New York Times, Management Review, Computer and Electronics Marketing, Flying, and Aspen Magazine, among others.

Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1 The Journey Begins 7

CHAPTER 2 Have I Got a Deal for You 23

CHAPTER 3 Morris Air Spreads Its Wings 39

CHAPTER 4 Off to Southwest 55

CHAPTER 5 Opening Up New Skies 73

CHAPTER 6 A Different Kind of Airline 85

CHAPTER 7 Preparing for Departure 103

CHAPTER 8 JetBlue Takes Flight 121

CHAPTER 9 Making Air Travel Entertaining 139

CHAPTER 10 Keeping Customers Happy 151

CHAPTER 11 The Technology Advantage 163

CHAPTER 12 Getting the Word Out in Style 177

CHAPTER 13 Dealing with Disaster 193

CHAPTER 14 Preserving the Culture 213

CHAPTER 15 Looking to the Future 225

CHAPTER 16 David Neeleman's Rules for Succeeding in Any
Business 243

JetBlue Timeline 255

Acknowledgments 263

Notes 265

Index 289

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)