Description
JetBlue Airways is a major American low cost airline, and the seventh largest airline in North America by passengers carried. JetBlue Airways is headquartered in the Long Island City neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens; it also maintains corporate offices in Utah and Florida.
In 2020, it ranked #394 financially on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. JetBlue operates over 1,000 flights daily and serves 100 domestic and international network destinations in the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America. JetBlue is not a member of any of the three major airline alliances but it has codeshare agreements with 21 airlines, including member airlines of Oneworld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and unaffiliated airlines.
History
1998–2000 founding
JetBlue was incorporated in Delaware in August 1998 with its headquarters in Forest Hills, Queens. David Neeleman founded the company in August 1999, under the name "NewAir". JetBlue started by following Southwest's approach of offering low-cost travel, but sought to distinguish itself by its amenities, such as in-flight entertainment, TV at every seat, and Sirius XM satellite radio.
In September 1999, the airline was awarded 75 initial take-off/landing slots at John F. Kennedy International Airport and received its USDOT CPCN authorization in February 2000. It commenced operations on February 11, 2000, with services to Buffalo and Fort Lauderdale.
JetBlue's founders had set out to call the airline "Taxi" and therefore have a yellow livery to associate the airline with New York. The idea was dropped after threats from investor JP Morgan to pull its share ($20 million of the total $128 million) of the airline's initial funding unless the name was changed.
2020s
In January 2020, JetBlue announced its intentions to start becoming carbon neutral on all domestic flights. In February 2020, Joel Peterson announced his intention to retire from the airline's board of directors at the end of his current term, and was subsequently succeeded by Peter Boneparth in May 2020.[90] Peterson had been part of the airline's board of directors since 1999 and served as chairman since 2008.
JetBlue made changes to its operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated impacts on aviation. This included the reduction of passenger capacity by blocking middle seats on its Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, and aisle seats on the Embraer E190. As a result of the economic effects caused by the pandemic, the company launched voluntary separation and extended time off programs. By August 2020, JetBlue, along with Southwest Airlines implemented strict policies for the wearing of facial masks, the policies of which would additionally not allow for "medical exemptions", as part of their procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline also announced that it would also continue to block middle seats through at least mid-October.
In June 2020, the airline announced several new routes across its network, including point-to-point routes between the northeastern United States and Florida, and new transcontinental routes from Newark Liberty International Airport. Along with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation, the airline announced that over 60% of its employees were interested in taking early retirement or long-term leave from the firm. In July 2020, American Airlines joined the airline in a strategic partnership, which would allow both airlines' expansions to destinations, customer connectivity, and support of expansions through the airline's loyalty program. Along with its announcement of its strategic partnership with American Airlines, the airline announced the imminent closure of its base at Long Beach Airport and transfer of the base's operations to Los Angeles International Airport from October 6, 2020.
On February 1, 2021, JetBlue introduced its new Mint product called Mint Suite, which was to be configured on its entire Airbus A321LR fleet for its future transatlantic flights to London, and on some of its A321neo aircraft for select flights initially to Los Angeles. On April 21, 2021, JetBlue announced that the airline would be expanding into Canada, announcing new routes between Vancouver and both New York City and Boston. On April 26th, 2021, JetBlue held its inaugural Airbus A220-300 flight which flew from Boston Logan International Airport to Tampa International Airport. On May 19, 2021, JetBlue confirmed the start dates and destination airports for its planned flights to London, and by extension its first flights to Europe. The airline announced that it would operate services from New York JFK to both London Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and that the services would launch on August 11, 2021 and September 29, 2021 respectively. In turn, the airline's planned flights between London and Boston were postponed to 2022.
