On the Runway

Fast Company: A lot of startup airlines have failed since deregulation in 1978. Why do you think JetBlue will make it?

David Neeleman: One advantage is we've already been able to get higher fares than our competitors. Customers are saying it's worth a little more to fly us and get the JetBlue experience. If you had told me when we were starting out that this would happen, I would have said, 'You're insane.' When fares are comparable, people tend to go with the incumbent. The loyalty of our customers is astounding. It's proof you can build affinity with a new brand and a higher level of service.

FC: How do you feel when JetBlue is compared to People Express, which abruptly went from popular upstart to bankruptcy back in the 1980s?

Neeleman: When I went to talk to a business class at Yale, Don Burr [the founder of People Express] was in the audience. The professor showed a 20/20 piece on Burr and People Express, and it was chilling to see the rah-rah-rah with those employees, knowing what happened to the company. Then, we watched a 60 Minutes piece on us and the professor asked, 'What are you going to do so you don't end up sitting here one day like Don, with some other young guy talking about his new airline?' I did research on People Express. It didn't have the technology we have. And it had a different business model. We've built JetBlue with quality customer service, low costs, and a really strong balance sheet. I'm a firm believer that if you have those elements, you'll survive rough spots in the road.

FC: How has the competition changed since JetBlue came on the scene?

Neeleman: We've faced competition from the beginning, but now they're no longer just matching fares. They're digging deeper in their bag of tricks and offering lower fares or free tickets or triple miles. But these deals cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. They can't continue that. We just have to wait them out and continue to do a great job.

FC: What's your biggest fear?

Neeleman: I was out at JFK this morning and a customer came up and told me, 'This is the best airline I've ever flown.' I said, 'Thank you,' and I'm thinking, 'Geez, how do we maintain it? How do we make sure he still thinks that about us a year from now, or five years from now?'

FC: What's the answer?

Neeleman: You have to remain focused on your people. That's the key to great service. I want our crew members [JetBlue lingo for employees] to feel that they're important and that we're on a mission together, to put humanity back in air travel. That's where a strong culture comes in. Hopefully, it makes them feel this is the best job they've ever had. If they like coming to work, that gets passed on to the customer. It all starts with hiring, though. We had over 100,000 people apply here last year, and we hired 1,700. We're highly selective. We want crew members who like people, not just certain people.

FC: How do you ensure that the culture doesn't stray off-course as the airline grows rapidly?

Neeleman: We do an annual Speak-Up Survey of all crew members. We ask how they feel, what it's like to work here, what we need to improve. It's an accountability tool, a bit of a hammer for people who come to work and feel like being a jerk. If there's a problem, we find out about it.

FC: What has the survey revealed?

Neeleman: We realized we were promoting people without proper training. We were telling them, 'Okay, you're the boss' but we weren't telling them how to be a boss -- a non-dictatorial boss. As front line people, all they had to do was show up on time, sober and with a good attitude, and take care of each other and the customers. Now we're saying, 'You're a leader. We're asking you to inspire greatness in others, because that's what leaders do.'

FC: Were you surprised that employees weren't happy with their supervisors?

Neeleman: When you start out building a new airline, a leadership program is probably the last thing on your list. There are so many other things to do first. Maybe we would have been better to realize we needed it earlier, but we had a mechanism in place to identify the need. And the program is working so far. Even though only 20 percent of the company had been through Principles of Leadership when we did last year's survey, every single category went up.

FC: JetBlue is the third airline you've had a hand in creating. What are you doing differently this time?