JetBlue Airways founder David Neeleman is setting his sights high once again, raising $100 million for a new low-cost U.S. airline he hopes to launch by 2020.
Dubbed Moxy Airways, the venture would use a fleet of lightweight carbon fiber Bombardier CS300 aircraft and smaller airports such as Fort Worth, Tex. and Burbank, Calif. in an effort to reduce fuel consumption, wait times and other air travel-related fees and hassles, according to Bloomberg.
Led by the Brazilian-American airline industry entrepreneur, an investment group has been soliciting Chinese funders to pay for 18 of the needed planes. Neeleman will also put his own money into Moxy, which has secured orders for 60 C Series jets from Canada’s Bombardier so far.
Neeleman has had a hand in sending a number of airlines into the skies, including Morris Air, which Southwest acquired in 1993 within Morris’s first year of business. Neeleman also founded Brazilian airline Azul and Canadian low-cost carrier WestJet, and is an investor in TAP Air Portugal. He launched JetBlue in 2000 and famously donated his salary as CEO each year to a crisis fund for airline employees.
