Where have you heard this before? We're starting tickets and go to the big cities.'
a new low-fare airline.
We're going to offer low-fare
-Financial If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline: -Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin
Analyst
Atlantic
Airways
Keep an eye on ]etBlue.
That could prove to be a successful operation.3 -Herb Kelleher, Co-founder,
CEO, Southwest
Airlines
Ann Rhoades looked up from the stack of papers in front of her and gazed out the window. She watched with pride as a JetBlue plane lifted off from Kennedy Airport. She knew from the That, along with Neeleman's aggressive, restless personality , always seeking to innovate, created tension in Southwest's top management team. Ann Rhoades, as the executive vice president of human resources at the time, was given the task of letting Neeleman go in 1994. According to Rhoades: David came running into a closed environment. He was ahead of Southwest in technology . He initiated the e-ticket at Southwest. But he didn't fit the culture. Herb can't fire a living soul so after he talked to David, David and I discussed why this particular marriage would not work!6 Though disappointed, Neeleman did not drop out. Having signed a five-year non-compete agreement with Southwest as part of the Morris Air sale, he turned to developing anew reservations system called Open Skies (sold to Hewlett Packard in October of 1998). Neeleman then went on to work as a consultant to a Canadian low-fare start-up carrier, West Jet Airlines.
2
]etBlue Airways: Starting from Scratch
801-354
In 1998,when the non-competeagreementwith SouthwestAirlines ran out, Neelemandecided to capitalize on his Morris Air, Open Skiesand West Jet successes develop a new start-up airline. He to wanted to follow the successfulexample of Southwest,stimulating demand in under-servedmarkets with low fares, enabled by the highly productive use of employeesand aircraft. But Neelemanalso felt he could improve on the Southwest model. His new airline would improve
