David Neeleman Biography

David Neeleman is one of the most successful and innovative entrepreneurs in airlines history. He has the unique achievement of starting four different airlines. Born in Brazil where his father was working as a foreign correspondent, he spent his early childhood in that country. The family moved back to the United States and Neeleman completed his studies there. He went back to Brazil as a Mormon missionary and vowed to go back again to do something for the people. While in college, Neeleman started a successful business of packaging timeshares and airline tickets for tours in Hawaii. After the business folded up, he was approached by June Morris to start a package tour business with her. They operated Morris Air Charters till it was bought over. Neeleman’s next venture was creating a paperless reservation system. This innovative system was later brought by HP. Neeleman then started his own airline company ‘JetBlue’ a budget carrier which stood out for its customer-service. Remembering the promise that he had made to himself in his youth, he started ‘Azul’ an airline connecting cities in Brazil which had no air connectivity. He also bought Portugal’s national airline along with his partners. Neeleman’s latest offering is an airline named ‘Breeze Airways’. This carrier will fly on routes that other airlines don’t and have the best customer-centered service. A combination that he believes will make it stand apart from all other carriers