Advice Line with David Neeleman of JetBlue
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What is the purpose of the Advice Line podcast?
Hello and welcome to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz. This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges. Each week, I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on the show who will help me try to help you. And if you're building something and you need advice, give us a call and you just might be the next guest on the show. Our number is 1-800-433-1298. Leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and the issues or questions that you'd like help with. All right, let's get to it. Joining me this week is David Nieleman, founder of JetBlue, which he founded in 1998. David is also the founder of Azul, which is now one of the largest airlines in South America.
And he's also the founder and CEO of another airline in the U.S. It's called Breeze Airways, which began operating in 2021. David, it's great to have you back on the show.
Always great to talk to you, Guy.
So you've been on the show, I think, three times in the past. You were first on back in 2019 when, of course, you shared the story of how you started your first airline, which was Morris Air, which was acquired by Southwest. And then you got you ended up getting fired by Southwest. But then you launched JetBlue and turned it into this incredible business. And then you got fired from that. And then you started another airline here. in South America, and another one called Breeze. It's just an incredible story. We will put a link to it in the show notes if you guys have not heard that episode. It's really, really, really good. It's just an amazing story. So thank you for coming back onto the show, David.
Before we get to today's callers, I want to ask you a couple questions about what's been going on in your life since you were last on. So you... You started Breeze, and I think we talked a little bit about that when you were last on. It's been now going since 2021, and you're flying, I think, only Airbus A220s. Is that right? That's correct.
Yeah, we have some others, but, yeah, primarily A220s.
Which is amazing because it reminds me of the Southwest model with 737s. All right. Tell me about Breeze. What makes it different from JetBlue and Azulon or similar or different from other airlines operating right now?
Well, I always learn. I learn from everything that I've ever done before.
Who is David Neeleman and what is his background?
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.
Country of birth is Brazil because I think you were born there while your dad was on a mission there, right?
Yeah.
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. And then I looked back to the US and I just saw some interesting trends that airplanes were getting bigger and bigger. And then the big guys were dominant hubs and really forcing people to fly through hubs. 125 cities had lost 25% of their air service over the last 10 years.
And I also saw this trend about premium travel. People wanted to pay up for a little better service. And so I just found a plane that was conducive to first class, that was brand new, that had bigger windows, the two and three seating people loved. And with a 25% lower trip cost. And so we started flying today. We've announced 89 cities. We're in 36 different states. We have 314 different routes.
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