NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq:JBLU) today turned five. The airline commenced service at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on February 11, 2000, with a ceremonial flight to Buffalo, NY, and back before taking its first commercial flight to Fort Lauderdale, FL, later that day. Five years later, JetBlue is the largest airline at JFK and ranked as a "major" airline by the US Department of Transportation, having achieved annual revenues of more than a billion dollars.
Photos accompanying this release can be found at
http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1413 and http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1414
To mark the occasion, David Neeleman, JetBlue's Chairman and CEO, and Dave Barger, President and COO, hosted an event for JetBlue crewmembers and customers to greet the arrival of the airline's 71st Airbus A320 aircraft, debuting the fleet's seventh tail fin design, Mosaic. Earlier in the day, the airline gave away 500 free tickets throughout New York City's five boroughs to support the charity City Harvest. Ticket seekers had to dress as their favorite JetBlue destination and bring canned goods for the charity.
"It's hard to believe it's been five years since we first flew to Buffalo and Fort Lauderdale from JFK," said David Neeleman, JetBlue's CEO. "And now we serve Buffalo with seven daily flights to JFK and as many as two dozen flights a day between Fort Lauderdale and New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports. This airline's phenomenal success is a testament to our 8,000 bright, dedicated, kind and tireless crewmembers."
JetBlue is a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline, which provides high-quality customer service. JetBlue operates a fleet of 71 new Airbus A320 aircraft and plans to add 13 additional A320s and 7 Embraer E190s to its fleet in 2005. Based at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, JetBlue currently operates 276 flights a day and serves 30 destinations in 12 states, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas.
All JetBlue aircraft feature roomy leather seats; all equipped with an in-seat digital entertainment system offering up to 36 channels of free DIRECTV(R) programming. On many flights, a selection of first-run movies and bonus features from FOX InFlight Premium Entertainment may be available (see Note).
With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all travel is ticketless, all fares are one-way, and a Saturday night stay is never required. For more information, schedules and fares, please visit www.jetblue.com or call JetBlue reservations at 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583), 1-888-538-2583 if calling from Puerto Rico, or 1-200-9898 if calling from the Dominican Republic. This press release, as well as past press releases, can be found on www.jetblue.com.
Photos can also be found at NewsCom, www.newscom.com
Note: DIRECTV(R) service is not available on flights between JFK and Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic; however, where available, FOX InFlight Premium Entertainment is offered complimentary on these routes.
This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature which represent our management's beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are based on information currently available to us. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements due to many factors, including without limitation, potential hostilities in the Middle East or other regions, our ability to implement our growth strategy and our dependence on the New York market, our fixed obligations and our limited operating history, seasonal fluctuations in our operating results, increases in maintenance costs, fuel prices and interest rates, our competitive environment, our reliance on sole suppliers, government regulation, our failure to properly integrate LiveTV or enforce its patents, our ability to hire qualified personnel, the loss of key personnel and potential problems with our workforce including work stoppages, and continuing changes in the airline industry following the September 11th terrorist attacks and the increased risk of future attacks, the potential risks with the delivery, placing into service and integration into our operations of the EMBRAER 190 aircraft as well as the potential liability relating to our handling of customer data. Additional information concerning these and other factors is contained in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to, the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.
