David Neeleman JetBlue

for creating an airline fit for humans

"We could become the best airline and be not all that great." So says JetBlue founder and CEO David Neeleman, and that's the attitude that got him into our hearts. Neeleman realized that flying had become a premier modern nightmare, worse even than the post office or the DMV. Even the best were rude, cramped, slow, and expensive. So instead of trying to beat the other airlines, he took a different angle. He's not in the aviation industry, Neeleman says, "we're in the customer service business."

That sounds obvious--isn't every entrepreneur in the customer service business?--but it explains how JetBlue has made flying almost fun in a kind of 1950s Pan Am way. A famously frenetic 44-year-old Mormon with nine kids and attention deficit disorder, Neeleman had baptized 200 converts while doing missionary work in the slums of Rio, shilled Hawaii vacation packages, and helped build charter airline Morris Air into a company that the original cheap-and-fun flyer, Southwest Airlines, bought for $130 million in 1993. He was a ferocious salesman who knew something about making people happy; he just wanted to do it better.

So, years before JetBlue's first plane took off, Neeleman and the team he'd assembled for this crazy venture (A new airline? Didn't he remember People's Express?) made long lists of the worst parts of flying. That's why JetBlue has a 20-minute goal for unloading luggage, no required Saturday stays, flight attendants in the aisles to help stow bags, individual TVs (coming soon: pay-per-view), leather seats (comfortable and longer lasting), seat assignments (Southwest is great, but it's a free-for-all), and lids on the coffee cups (in case of turbulence). No detail was beneath consideration. At one meeting Neeleman leaned in close to Michael Lazarus, for four years the company's chairman. "Chicken or steak? Chicken or steak?" he barked. Lazarus had no idea what was going on, until Neeleman calmed down and explained: "Our flight attendants are going to speak in complete sentences."

JetBlue, like Southwest, keeps down repair costs by flying only one kind of jet. To stave off employee resentment (read: unionization), Neeleman helps unload luggage and clean planes and keeps his salary at a reasonable $200,000. Earlier this year, employees were given 17% of their 2003 salaries in profit sharing. This mix of pleased customers and happy, inexpensive workers has given JetBlue a per-passenger-mile cost of 6.08 cents, the lowest in the industry, and a market value of $2.4 billion, bigger than Delta and Continental combined.

But it takes vigilance. On the two days before our interview, Neeleman had been up at 4 a.m. to fly roundtrips from New York to Fort Lauderdale and then San Diego. He estimates that he talked to 500 customers in the two days, and under his eyes he has bags like dried prunes. Still, he paces swiftly as he checks his BlackBerry pager, talks on his cell phone, pops the top of a cookie tin, and frets over a horror-movie fog that threatens to turn JFK airport into a no-fly zone. "Flying was a glamorous thing to do. People enjoyed it because they were appreciated," he says. "We're trying to get back some of that."--Ian Mount

Ian Mount is a New York writer.

1. Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
   because "optimism is essential"
2. Betsey Johnson, Betsey Johnson
   for her stylish life
3. Russell Simmons, Rush Communications
   for his powerful example
4. Scott Cook, Intuit
   because he learns, and teaches
5. Sergey Brin & Larry Page, Google
   for their integrity. And, well, for Google
6. David Neeleman, JetBlue
   for creating an airline fit for humans
7. Tom Stemberg, Staples
   for doing it exactly right
8. Jack Stack, SRC Holdings
   for going naked
9. Judy Wicks, White Dog Enterprises
   because she's put in place more progressive business practices per square foot than any other entrepreneur
10. Davin Wedel, Global Protection
    because he's a lifesaver
11. Pat McGovern, International Data Group
    for knowing the power of respect
12. Steve Jobs, Apple Computer, Pixar
    because we like to be seduced
13. Lance Morgan, Ho-Chunk
    because a man must make his own arrows--Winnebago proverb
14. James Goodnight, SAS
    for saying no to Wall Street (repeatedly) and yes to the people who really matter
15. Stella Ogiale, Chesterfield Health Services
    for doing good while doing well
16. Rhonda Kallman, New Century Brewing
    for seizing opportunity-- again and again
17. Laima Tazmin, LAVT
    because she's a lot like other kids--and then again...
18. Laura & Pete Wakeman, Great Harvest Bread
    for living a little --no, a lot
19. Andra Rush, Rush Trucking
    for rolling up her sleeves
20. Kathleen Wehner, Cirrus Aviation
    for refusing to quit
21. Frank Venegas, Ideal Group
    because he parlayed a little bit of luck into a lot of good fortune for others
22. Dan Wieden, Wieden + Kennedy
    because he's a true independent
23. John Sperling, Apollo Group
    because he stirs the pot, and apparently always will
24. John Stollenwerk, Allen-Edmonds
    for his commitment to U.S. workers. We also love the shoes
25. Mel Zuckerman, Canyon Ranch
    for showing the way

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