The effort to bring “humanity” back to air travel has guided JetBlue CEO Dave Barger's management philosophy ever since he landed his original job as the airline's president and COO in August 1998. While circumstances beyond its control certainly tested that doctrine at times, JetBlue never veered from its core values-thanks in large part to Barger, who, in May 2007, assumed the chief executive's role from its founder, David Neeleman. Since then Barger has led the airline's return to profitability, presided over its transition from Navitaire to the Sabre reservations system, guided negotiations that ultimately kept its headquarters in Queens, N.Y., sealed a landmark code-share deal with Lufthansa and brokered an interline agreement and slot swap with American Airlines that will allow JetBlue to launch service from Washington Reagan National Airport in November. From his offices in New York, Barger spoke with AIN this month about those developments and some of the trends he sees emerging within the industry at large.
