JetBlue to Help Sell a Private Jet-Style Experience to the Masses

For travel starting May 1, JetBlue Airways will use its website to sell seats on semi-private flights on a handful of routes, such as between Burbank Airport near Los Angeles, the East Bay of San Francisco, and Las Vegas. The effort is modest to start. JetSuiteX has only five airplanes, with plans to add two more jets by summer. But the move may help popularize a different type of flying that may appeal to JetBlue's most lucrative customers and it may also help the airline plug some gaps in its geographic service coverage. The move emerges out of a codeshare deal with JetSuiteX, a scheduled service sister company of JetSuite, a private charter jet operator. In 2016, JetBlue made an undisclosed investment in JetSuite. Executives revealed on Tuesday that it was a 10 percent stake. Qatar has also invested in JetSuite. CEO Robin Hayes told investors on an earnings call, "When you look at the customer experience [at JetSuiteX], when you look at the customer NPS [net promoter score] data, when you lo