US approves new airline from JetBlue founder

The US DoT has granted approval for a new airline led by David Neeleman, who started JetBlue Airways two decades ago. Breeze Aviation Group has up to one year to begin flights using up to 22 planes, the company said Wednesday. According to an application submitted last year, the airline plans to fly to “neglected, forgotten markets” using smaller planes to reduce costs. Company representatives said that many parts of the country have seen air service decline as big airlines focus on major airports. Neeleman, 61, co-founded Morris Air, which was sold to Southwest in 1993. In 1998, he started New York-based JetBlue and served as its CEO until 2007, then left to found Brazilian airline Azul, where he remains chairman after stepping down as CEO in 2017. A company filing in September reported that Neeleman owns 36% of Breeze and is its CEO.<br/>
AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/us-approves-new-airline-from-jetblue-founder/2021/03/10/a1e57cae-81cf-11eb-be22-32d331d87530_story.html
3/11/21