Successfully Disrupting the Sky-High Stakes Airline Industry David Neeleman is Going for a 5-peat
Date: May 08, 2025Time: 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
May082025
Successfully Disrupting the Sky-High Stakes Airline Industry David Neeleman is Going for a 5-peat
Description
In 1984, 25 year old David Neeleman co-founded Morris Air (sold to Southwest). Over the past 32 years, he’s founded 4 more airline startups including JetBlue, Azul (Brazil’s largest), WestJet and now Breeze Airways, which launched operations during the pandemic.
We have come to expect on time comfortable travel experiences, but don’t appreciate the orchestration of all that is required to deliver that service and the many potential failure points. Commercial air transport is one of the most complex and difficult businesses to operate due to being asset heavy (having high fixed long-term leases); large (unionized) workforce (pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, ground crew, baggage handlers, etc.); 24/7/365 operations; multiple touch points with demanding customers; many uncontrollable impacts (weather, pandemics, fuel prices, recessions, air traffic controllers strikes, etc.). A single flight delay has a ripple effect with many downstream costs and consequences for airlines and their customers. There’s a very long (and growing) list of casualties including PanAm, Continental, TWA, Eastern, Northwest, USAir, Braniff … and many more. The global air travel market has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels of $1 trillion, but even in relatively “good times” operating margins are only 6% to 7% and profits about 3% … with the dominant carriers taking a disproportionate share of profits. As Neeleman told the Wall Street Journal, “There’s a lot more people that have lost money in this business than have made money,”
Why would anyone want to start an airline? Why start 5 and acquire another? (David partnered to buy a majority stake in TAP Air Portugal, the flag carrier of Portugal.)
Neeleman’s approach focuses on the customer experience and he is known to be relentless about driving change. “He throws crazy ideas out there just to get people thinking of, ‘Well, what can we do?’” one executive observed.
In May 2021, Neeleman launched his latest venture, Breeze Airways, a low-cost airline headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s motto is, “The Seriously Nice™ Airline” to reflect their mission to provide a more comfortable, enjoyable and safe travel experience at competitive (or better) fares. Breeze provides service to 80 mostly midsized cities nationwide. United, Delta, Southwest and American control roughly 75% of domestic traffic through a hub and spoke network. If you want to fly from Albany to Raleigh Durham or Tampa to Charleston, SC, you’ll save a lot of time and money by flying nonstop on Breeze. Whereas the major airlines require a connection thru one (or 2) of their hubs to travel between 2 midsize cities or may not serve them at all.
Join us for this unique opportunity to learn from aviation entrepreneur David Neeleman. No doubt, his insights and experience will provide valuable takeaways regardless of your industry.
Pre-registration is required and will close at Noon on May 7th, 2025. Zoom instructions will be sent the day before the event.
Please note that no refunds will be issued.
Please note that no refunds will be issued.
By registering for this event you agree to abide by the HBSCNY Code of Conduct for yourself and your guests (read here).
Bios
Speaker
David Neeleman
Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Breeze Airways
David Neeleman is that rarest of entrepreneurs, a man who has created and launched a multitude of successful, independent airlines, including the USA’s Breeze Airways, JetBlue and Morris Air (later sold to Southwest), Canada’s WestJet and Brazil’s Azul.
David was born in Brazil while his father was Reuter’s São Paulo Bureau Chief. His family moved to Utah while he was still a child. His career began in 1984 when he co-founded a low-fare carrier called Morris Air with June Morris, the owner of Salt Lake City-based travel agency Morris Travel. As President of Morris Air, David implemented the industry’s first electronic ticketing system and pioneered a home reservation system where calls are handled by reservationists working from their homes.
Following the sale of Morris Air and a short period with Southwest Airlines, David took the electronic ticketing system that he had initiated at Morris Air and developed it to become Open Skies, the world’s simplest airline reservation system. David sold Open Skies to Hewlett Packard in 1999. Also during this period, David acted as a consultant to WestJet Airlines, the successful Canadian low-fare start-up airline.
David then founded JetBlue Airways in New York and spent a decade as Chief Executive Officer (1998 to 2007) and Chairman (2002 to 2008). An amazing success by any measure, JetBlue was an instant hit with travelers and was the first airline to earn $100 million annually within five years, thus becoming a “major” airline fastest. JetBlue has won countless awards and accolades including Top Low Cost Airline for Customer Satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates and Best Airline by Consumer Reports. It won Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers Choice Awards for Best U.S. Airline for seven consecutive years.
After JetBlue, it was Brazil’s turn to experience David’s magic in bringing new planes and low fares to many markets that had never seen nonstop service. Azul, launched in 2008, now serves more than 100 destinations with an operating fleet of more than 140 aircraft, including Brazilian-built Embraer E-190 and E-195 jets, and ATR-72s. Just as JetBlue in the US before it, Azul is the first airline in Latin America to offer LiveTV inflight TV programming via satellite.
David now turns his attention back to the US domestic airline industry with his new airline Breeze Airways. Breeze began commercial service in May 2021 and now operates more than 170 routes in more than 50 cities across the USA with bases in Charleston, SC; Hartford, CT; Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa, FL; New Orleans, LA; Norfolk, VA; Providence, RI; and Provo, UT.
With Breeze, David continues to re-invent low-cost but premium leisure travel with Breeze’s Ascent experience and nonstop service between secondary and tertiary markets across the USA. Breeze currently operates a fleet of more than 30 Airbus A220-300 and Embraer 190/195 aircraft, with confirmed orders for a total of 90 A220s.
Just three years old, Breeze is now turning profits and has been ranked as one of the U.S.’ best domestic airlines in the last two World’s Best Awards by Travel + Leisure magazine (#2 in 2022 and #4 in 2023).
Moderator
Lance Stuart, MBA 1978
CEO of FastXchange
Lance Stuart is the CEO of FastXchange, a Los Angeles-based business that is the leader in providing outsourced procurement services to major U.S. aerospace and defense contractors. Previously, he was a Senior Partner at Vici Partners where he continues as a Senior Advisor. He has over 30 years of consulting and operating experience, principally in the U.S., Japan and China. Clients span industries from cosmetics and consumer electronics to software, chemicals, insurance, airlines. Department of Defense and telecoms. Lance has been an investor, co-founder, CEO, COO and board member of several companies in the U.S. and Asia. He began his career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York then transferred to Tokyo. He took his first international flight before his first birthday and continues to fly over 100,000 miles every year.
Lance earned a B.S. in economics and marketing, with honors, from Boston College and an MBA from Harvard Business School (MBA 1978), where he was awarded two academic scholarships. He was raised in Tokyo and is an active volunteer in several non-profit organizations including the Harvard Business School Club of NY, the Harvard Business School Association of Orange County and as a Council Member on the U.S.-Japan Council.
Date Time
Date: May 08, 2025Time: 6:30 PM to 7:30 PMLocation
VirtualVirtual, View Map
Price
- Free / Member/Member Guest
- 10 / Alumni Non-Member
- 20 / General Public
Organizer
Barrie Moskowitz and Lance StuartVirtual
Virtual
