Breeze Airways' David Neeleman talks culture, technology and communication

Along his journey founding countless airlines dating back to the 1990s, one of aviation industry veteran David Neeleman’s tenets is to simply be nice. 

Speaking at the The Phocuswright Conference 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, the founder, chairman and CEO of Breeze Airways — which has the motto “seriously nice” — said, “We train a lot of people to be seriously nice. It’s the cheapest way to dazzle people.” 

Neeleman launched Breeze Airways in May 2021, making it his fifth commercial airline startup along with Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue and Azul. 

“If you wake up and you’re nice, and you treat other people nice, and they treat you nice, you’re just a happier person. So there’s no reason not to be nice,” he said. 

Neeleman also shared his perspective on artificial intelligence and its use in aviation, noting how it can be used to better identify passengers for marketing, for aircraft maintenence operations and, most importantly, for customer service. 

“One of the things we started with, and it was a little frustrating for guests, is that we don’t have a call center,” he said. “Everything is done through text communication. A lot of our people work from home, they can be talking to six or seven people at the same time, which helps efficiency. But as you get that machine learning and questions over and over again, it gets better and better.” 

Breeze’s 100-strong “guest empowerment team” deals with 30,000 passengers daily, and the airline operates in 66 cities, across 30 states. 

“AI, from a customer perspective, we have this perfect database on our guests. We’re probably the only airline that has contact information on every single one of our guests,” he said. “We can communicate directly. If a flight is 15 minutes late, we can let them know.” 

Neeleman also touched on business travel, concerns around sustainable aviation fuel, the recent bankruptcy filing by Spirit Airlines and advice for entrepreneurs: “Be extraordinary. Most companies aren’t.” 

He also talked about having ADHD and how that has affected his leadership style and the importance of developing a company's culture, sharing that he conducts regular calls with Breeze's teams of technicians, pilots and flight attendants. “You have to keep selling the vision,” he said.

Watch the full session with Phocuswright senior vice president of content Mitra Sorrells.