David Neeleman
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Always great to talk to you, Guy.
Yeah, we have some others, but, yeah, primarily A220s.
Well, I always learn.
I learn from everything that I've ever done before.
And
I learned from my Southwest experience that if you bought brand new airplanes, it was actually cheaper than if you got old airplanes.
And I did that at JetBlue.
And then I learned also at Southwest that you need to treat your people awesome.
So I did that at JetBlue.
And then, as you said, I was somewhat forced out of JetBlue.
They wanted me just to be the chairman.
I said, no way.
So I went back to the country of my birth and founded Azul.
Well, he was actually a journalist, but he had served his mission there, fell in love with the country and came back to work, as so many do when they serve their missions.
So it was amazing.
Brazil was kind of like the US airline business when it was in the 1960s.
So I really learned the value of being the exclusive person in a market, being a monopoly market.
Even till today, Azul...
About 85% of their markets, they have no nonstop competition.
So I learned that big lesson.