David Neeleman has a long history of success in the airline business. He’s either founded or co-founded four major airlines and is reportedly working on a fifth.
You may have heard of a few of Neeleman’s success stories like WestJet, JetBlue, and Azul.
Even though Neeleman has long departed WestJet and JetBlue, he is still involved in the day-t0-day operations of Azul, a burgeoning Brazillian low-cost carrier.
In addition to Azul, Neeleman is also a co-owner of TAP Air Portugal. In 2015, Neeleman led a consortium of investors called Atlantic Gateway in a successful bid to take over Portugal’s 73- year-old, government-owned national airline.
The consortium now owns 45% of the airline while the Portuguese government retains a 50% stake. The final 5% belongs to the airline’s employees.
Turning TAP around
At the time, TAP was in bad shape and heavily in debt. The airline suffered as a result of European Union regulations that frowned upon state-funded enterprises competing with private industry, Neeleman told us in a recent interview.
In the year prior to Neeleman and Co’s takeover, escalating costs due to fuel prices and labor problems only managed to compound the airline’s problems — forcing it to declare a loss of around $50 million.
“The way the airline was funded was basically the local Portuguese banks were taking turns putting money in the company,” Neeleman said.
