Preview

Jetblue

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
8870 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Jetblue
Strategic Report for JetBlue Airways

Harkness Consulting
Innovation through Collaboration
Rosanna Smart Alisher Saydalikhodjayev Sayre Craig April 14, 2007

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ………………………………………………..3 Company History ………………………………….………………..4 Competitive Analysis ………………………………………………7
Internal Rivalry …………………………………………………………. 8 Entry ………………………………………………………………………… 9 Substitutes and Complements …………………………………….. 11 Supplier Power ………………………………………………………….. 12 Buyer Power …………………………………………………............... 13

Financial Analysis ………………………………………………….14 SWOT Analysis ………………………………………………………23 Strategic Issues and Recommendations …………………..25 References ……………………………………………………………30

Harkness Consulting

2

Executive Summary
From its initial flight in February 2000, JetBlue emerged into the heavily competitive airline industry as the little airline that could. While legacy carriers declared bankruptcy, JetBlue trounced its competition by offering low‐cost, customer‐focused service. Under the direction of the energetic David Neeleman, JetBlue became a major player in the airline industry. Operating domestic flights on a point‐to‐point system, JetBlue primarily manages East‐West and Northeast‐Southeast routes. While this route structure initially proved profitable for the company, rising costs and heated price competition are currently threatening JetBlue’s market share. The company’s stock price has dropped drastically since reaching a high of over $30 in 2004. Currently priced at less than half its 52‐week high, JetBlue must take serious strategic action in order to reinvigorate its business. After working with low‐fare carrier Southwest, a touch‐screen airline reservation company, and a small upstart airline in Canada, David Neeleman transformed his brainchild, JetBlue, into reality. Neeleman based his airline around five core values: safety,



References: http://www.jetblue.com   http://www.factiva.com  3 http://www.boeing.com  4 http://www.faa.gov  5 http://www.eclipseaviation.com  6 http://world.honda.com/HondaJet/NBAA2006/video/PressConference/  7 http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4216980.html  8 http://www.barclaystransport.com/g550.html  9 Joe Sharkey, “Major Change Foreseen in Air Travel,” New York Times, October 7, 2003.  10 http://www.airlines.org/economics/fleet/  11 JPMorgan Aviation and Transportation Conference, 18 March 2008.  12 “Q4 2007 JetBlue Airways Earnings Conference Call”, 29 January 2008.  13 Southwest Airlines, 10‐K Filing for 2007.  14 http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/analyst/recomnd.asp?symbol=JBLU  15 http:// finance.yahoo.com  16 http://www.reuters.com  1 2 Harkness Consulting 29  http://www.reuters.com   JetBlue Airways 10‐K Filing for 2007.  19 “Airlines lighten up to cut fuel costs,” Thomson Financial News, 28 March 2008.    20 David Swierenga, former Air Transport Association of America economist and president of aviation  consulting company AeroEcon. 9 May 2006.  21 Bureau of Transportation Statistics “Airline Data and Statistics,” Research and Innovative Technology  Administration, 2007.  17 18 Harkness Consulting 30

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    HMP1 000305944 Task 1 2

    • 4618 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Before David Neeleman’s non-compete agreement with Southwest Airlines expired, he envisioned the concept of starting a low-fare airline that would combine common sense, innovation, and technology and bring the humanity back into air travel (Gittel & O’Reilly, 2001). In 1998, JetBlue was born. In order for David to fulfill his goal of a “do-it-right” kind of airline, he needed to recruit superior industry veterans who were willing to start from scratch and place an emphasis on employees and customers. Each of these individuals, from the President, General Counsel, CFO, and the HR director, wanted to create an airline that was fun, had integrity, was safe, and cared for their employees, plus had a passion to get it right (Gittel & O’Reilly, 2001).…

    • 4618 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jet Blue vs Southwest

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Wynbrandt, James. Flying High: How JetBlue Founder and CEO David Neeleman Beats the Competition--even in the World 's Most Turbulent Industry. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004. Print.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Target Corporation

    • 4839 Words
    • 20 Pages

    Internal Rivalry........................................................................................8 Entry ........................................................................................................9 Substitutes and Complements................................................................ 10 Supplier Power ...................................................................................... 10 Buyer Power .......................................................................................... 11…

    • 4839 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Problems at Jetblue

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages

    JetBlue marketed themselves as the inexpensive alternative to other airlines. Therefore, the company had to eliminate all of the bells and whistles its competitors offered in an effort to keep costs down. This also meant that its operations staff and IT systems were significantly limited. As a result, the company was not prepared for an emergency situation of such a large scale. The bad weather on February 14, 2007 caught them off-guard; their IT systems in place were not capable of handling the overload of required information. Also, JetBlue’s staff was limited and not properly cross-trained in handling reservation, flight and crew applications. Additionally, poor policies and procedure in place, like the airlines policy to do whatever it could to ensure a flight was completed, even if it meant waiting for a few hours, contributed to the downward spiral that took place in 2007 for JetBlue. Management took a risk that the weather would improve and hoped that the decision they had taken would pay off with huge profits.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jetblue Airlines

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Will they attract the ‘right people ' to work and will they attract enough business…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jetblue Case Analysis

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages

    JetBlue Airways airline was established by David Neeleman as a low-fare airline with high-quality customer service. His goal was to create an airline that was innovative for the current market. Their main focus was to provide service to areas that were underserved as well as to large cities with overpriced fares. He aimed to establish a strong brand that differentiated itself from its competitors by being a safe, reliable and low cost-airline. Neeleman managed to achieve this partially by hiring friendly, helpful, team-oriented, and customer-focused people. JetBlue is capable of offering low-cost flights due to their low operating costs. In order to achieve the cost advantage, they initially operated a single-type aircraft, the Airbus A320, as opposed to the more popular but costly Boeing 737. Not only was the airbus cheaper to maintain, but it was also more fuel-efficient. Additionally, they decided not to serve any meals on their planes as well as their pilots had to always be available, if needed, to help do the cleanup of the aircraft in order to minimize the time the aircraft was on the ground. They also pioneered the low-cost airline industry by displaying the lowest incidence of delayed, mishandled, or lost bags, and the third-lowest number of customer complaints. Since JetBlue is a customer-oriented company, its objective is to make the customer’s experience extraordinary by providing electronic ticketing and improved in-flight entertainment so that it can rapidly grow as an affordable airline.…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jetblue Case Analysis

    • 4169 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Using the information provided by the case study "JetBlue Airways: A Cadre of New Managers Takes Control," this case study analysis will provide a detailed overview of all the positive and negative aspects of JetBlue airline. Furthermore, it will review the strategic vision and implementations of JetBlue, the airline industry, JetBlue’s financial performance, and future recommendations for the company’s strategy.…

    • 4169 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    JetBlue Valuation

    • 1951 Words
    • 6 Pages

    JetBlue was started in 1999 by David Neeleman, whose vision is to give high-quality and reliable flying experience in a budget airline. Through sophisticated technology, brand new aircrafts, impeccable customer service and low fares, JetBlue was on its way to achieve this vision. Although the low-fare travel industry was gaining momentum, the September 11 attack brought a massive downturn to the already-risky airline industry. However, JetBlue was still able to deliver good performance despite the circumstances. It offered the lowest cost per available-seat-mile of any major US airlines. In order to support JetBlue’s growth plan and offset portfolio losses by its venture-capital investors, JetBlue wished to raise capital through initial public offering (IPO). The purpose of this report is to determine the appropriate JetBlue’s IPO price given the available data.…

    • 1951 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jetblue Case Study

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages

    that includes new aircraft with more leg room and wider cabins, leather seats, simple and…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jet Blue Case Analsis

    • 4881 Words
    • 20 Pages

    JetBlue Airways Corporation has established itself as a low-fare passenger airline with a differentiated product and a high-quality customer service. They focus on serving underserved markets and large metropolitan areas that have high average fares. They offer both short-haul and long-haul routes that are point-to-point rather than the 'hub and spoke" route system that has been adopted by most major U.S. airlines.…

    • 4881 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jetblue's Ipo Case Study

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In this case, JetBlue’s management was ready to improve additional capital through a public equity offering. In spite of the company facing the challenges of U.S airline industry following the terrorist attacks of September 2001, it still maintains profitability and aggressive growth. Meanwhile, JetBlue goes to public to support JetBlue’s growth expectation and on the other hand, offset the losses of portfolio from its venture-capital investors. However, there was some debate among…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jet Blue Case Study

    • 1912 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Gittel, J. H., O’Reilly, C (2001). JetBlue Airways Starting from Scratch. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing. Pp. 1-14 (78-91).…

    • 1912 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    This portion of the paper outlines the formation of a vision statement and the mission and values JetBlue embraces. A firm can initiate strategic management once it forms a mission statement. That statement allows the firm to aspire to its potential while bearing in mind what it wants to avoid as is successfully grows (Barney and Hesterly, 2010). JetBlue’s mission primarily has been to be a premier low-cost carrier, and the firm has been lax in updating its original, short statements.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Tiffany Analisis

    • 7047 Words
    • 29 Pages

    Internal Rivalry ………………………………………………….... 9 Entry ……………………………………………………………….... 12 Substitutes and Complements ………………………………. 12 Supplier Power …………………………………………………... 13 Buyer Power ………………………………………................... 15…

    • 7047 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jet Blue

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Prior to the February 2007 storms, JetBlue managed to build a solid reputation as one of the airline industries leaders in customer satisfaction. . “The foundation of a solid reputation exists when an organization’s identity and its image are aligned. (Argenti, 2009, p. 83) The companies solid foundation and reputation was due largely in part to providing its customers a variety of amenities and superior customer service that no other airlines offered, at least not for the low-cost fares that the company provided. In the wake of the events of the winter storm, JetBlue is forced to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to repair the damage. To meet this challenge I would recommend that the company focuses on marketing through social networks and partnering up with other industry leaders through customer loyalty incentives.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays