JetBlue founder to start new airline in Brazil

Low-cost airline, JetBlue, has announced plans to enter Brazil. David Neeleman, founder and non-executive board chairman of JetBlue, finds a huge opportunity in Brazil – a growing nation where only about five per cent of the population flies.

''The prices that people pay here in Brazil are 50 per cent higher than the prices people pay in the United States,''  Neeleman said in a statement.

This is on account of the duopoly enjoyed by two carriers in the country - TAM Linhas Aereas and Gol Linhas Aereas – who together command almost 90 per cent of Brazil's domestic aviation market. They have enjoyed such dominance since the collapse of Brazil's former flagship carrier Varig some years ago.

Like JetBlue, the US discount carrier that Neeleman founded in 1998, the new Brazilian airline will offer low fares and use a point-to-point route structure that flies travelers from one city to another without layovers.

''Our target market is the 150 million passengers who travel annually by long-distance bus, as well as those, who for lack of a convenient alternative, don't travel at all,'' he said.

Neeleman has decided to stay within the country while sourcing his jets. The carrier, still unnamed, will start with a fleet of three Embraer 195 jets made by the Brazilian manufacturer and should take to the skies at the beginning of 2009, Neeleman said at a news conference in Sao Paulo.