There was another difference that became just as important: the way Neeleman thought about employees.
He believed that the people working directly with customers were not an expense standing between the company and profitability.
They were the company.
That philosophy shaped his behavior as chief executive.
One of the most unusual examples was his compensation.
Neeleman set his annual salary at approximately $200,000, far below what many chief executives of major publicly traded airlines could potentially earn. More unusually, he chose not to take stock options, arguing that he already had enough and that equity should instead be directed toward employees who had less.
He also established a program through which his salary was directed toward a fund intended to help JetBlue employees facing serious hardship.
The idea was consistent with his broader philosophy.
If an employee was dealing with a catastrophe, Neeleman believed the company should be there.
And the response from employees was striking.
According to accounts from the period, crew members contributed to the fund themselves.
The message was simple.
Leadership was not supposed to exist on one side of an invisible wall while employees existed on the other.
Neeleman wanted the people who worked for JetBlue to believe they were building something together.
That philosophy was reflected in the way he behaved around the airline.
He did not want to be a CEO who spent his entire career inside an executive office.
He flew on JetBlue.
Frequently.
He interacted with customers.
He spent time with crew members.
He worked in the cabin.
He helped with baggage.
He wanted to see the operation firsthand rather than rely exclusively on reports prepared by executives.
For Neeleman, this was not simply a publicity stunt.
It reflected his belief that senior management needed direct contact with the actual operation.
An airline can look excellent on a spreadsheet and still feel terrible to the passenger standing at a check-in counter.
A flight can depart on time according to a report while the customer experience is chaotic.
A management team can believe it has solved a problem while the employee working on the front line knows that it has not.
Neeleman's answer was to stay close to the operation.
He once explained his philosophy by saying, "We have not built our company on the backs of our people."
That sentence captured much of what he was trying to accomplish.
JetBlue's early success suggested that the approach had merit.
The airline became a significant new competitor in the U.S. market. It offered passengers low fares without attempting to recreate the bare-bones experience associated with some other discount carriers.
Technology was also central to Neeleman's thinking.
He had long believed that computers could simplify airline operations and reduce the friction customers experienced. This would eventually become one of the recurring themes of his career: use technology not because it is fashionable, but because it can make the system work better.
JetBlue's growth demonstrated how powerful that combination could be.
Low fares.
Technology.
Employee engagement.
A recognizable brand.
And a customer experience that felt different from the major legacy airlines.
But then came one of the darkest episodes of Neeleman's career.
In February 2007, a severe winter storm hit the northeastern United States.
JetBlue's operation began to unravel.
Flights were delayed and canceled. Passengers were stranded. Some customers remained aboard aircraft on the ground for extended periods, while others were left waiting in terminals as the airline struggled to recover.
The crisis became one of the most damaging moments in JetBlue's young history.
The problem was not simply that a snowstorm had disrupted flights.
Bad weather affects every airline.
The deeper problem was that JetBlue's operational systems and decision-making processes were unable to recover quickly enough from the disruption.
The airline's reputation for customer service suffered a major blow.
Neeleman responded publicly and accepted responsibility for the failure.
JetBlue announced a sweeping passenger bill of rights designed to compensate customers for certain delays and cancellations. The company also began making significant changes to its operational planning and technology systems.
But the damage extended beyond individual flights.
The crisis raised questions about whether Neeleman could continue leading the company he had created.
In May 2007, JetBlue announced that Neeleman would step down as chief executive and that David Barger would succeed him. Neeleman remained chairman for a period, but his tenure as CEO was over.