Jetblue Case

Bailey Brupbacher
MGT 400 – Summer
JetBlue – Back to the Basics
JetBlue opened its doors for operations in 2000 as the highest funded startup airline in US aviation history, and when they went public in 2002 they sold more shares than ever expected and by the end of the first day of trading they had gone up $20. JetBlue was founded on the core competencies of keeping costs low and turning planes around quickly, and they saw a rapid growth as the technology boom swept the United States. But as with many large corporations during this time period, faced with the waning economy and higher fuel costs, JetBlue suffered major losses in 2005, 2006, and 2008, to the tune of $97 million. Losses like this can be detrimental, therefore JetBlue was forced to sell some of their aircrafts and increase the amount of aircrafts that they leased, but these are only temporary fixes, in order to fix this problem JetBlue must isolate the factors affecting it.
The first major problem is that JetBlue has grown too fast; therefore they now lack the infrastructure to handle major traffic or problems. The issue is that JetBlue strictly fixed problems instead of stepping back, assessing the situation and the future, and then creating solutions to potential problems. Although JetBlue had pioneered the electronic ticketing system, they failed to look ahead and develop this ticketing system so it could be used through both their website and through kiosks in the airport. In-line with this, once a major problem caused unexpected delays, JetBlue was unable to handle the volume of calls, the only option available to reach JetBlue representatives, to reschedule these thousands of flights, which when compounded resulted in the cancellation of almost 40% of their flights during this time period, a much higher percentage than any other airline company. Therefore it is recommended that JetBlue developed a complete strategic plan for growth. This plan is to include the implementation of a completely... [continues]

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