Reuters have reported that the founder of WestJet Airlines and jetBlue Airways, David Neeleman, is making plans to start a new budget airline, with a US$100m in startup capital.
It is believed that the new carrier may be called Moxy and that it has already secured 60 Bombardier CS300 aircraft, though so far Bombardier have declined to comment on the matter. Robert Milton, Air Canada CEO and Henri Courpron, former CEO of Lease Finance Corp are understood to be early investors in the new venture.
WestJet was founded in 1996 by David Neeleman along with Clive Beddoe, Mark Hill, Tom Morgan and Donald Bell and currently faces new competition in the form of Calgary-based low-cost carrier Flair. Having started as a low-cost carrier itself, WestJet moved its market position, and in a bid to regain its hold on low-cost flights, has just launched its subsidiary Swoop.
jetBlue was founded under the name “NewAir” by Neeleman in February 1999 and launched in the U.S. in February 2000. It is now the sixth-largest airline in the country. In 2016 it lost out to Alaska Air Group when it was unsuccessful in acquiring Virgin America.
