| The most relentless innovator in his industry |
| | Good morning,
David Neeleman is a case study of an entrepreneur who gets repeatedly sucker-punched by exogenous events. He's also a study in rebounding.
In the early 1990s, Neeleman built his first airline, Morris Air, out of the wreckage of his own failed travel agency. He launched JetBlue less than two years before 9/11 grounded the airlines for weeks, curbed travel for a year, and bankrupted most of the industry. And he began to build Breeze, his fifth airline startup, just before Covid-19 emptied the nation's airports. While major airlines, including Delta, United, and American, got more than $50 billion in loans and grants from the federal government to weather the pandemic, Neeleman had to plow his own money, some $30 million, into his fledgling business. (The company later got less than $1 million in Paycheck Protection Program money.)
The airline industry is often seen as having a high barrier to entry, but the real barrier is keeping an airline flying profitably over a long period of time, as dozens of defunct carriers can demonstrate. Neeleman's ability to spot opportunity and pair the right customer service with exacting operational efficiency has helped him defy the odds more often than any other airline entrepreneur.
After more than a year-long takeoff roll, Breeze gets airborne on May 23 with flights in 16 cities. Read our story to learn how Neeleman launched a new airline during a pandemic, and why he thinks Covid-19 has changed the industry’s chessboard in his startup’s favor. |
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