JetBlue: We asked Air Azul to change its name
7 comments May 6th, 2009
Wish I had gotten this Monday, when I wrote about Air Azul changing its name to JetAmerica, but it came in late yesterday.
JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin said, “At JetBlue, we vigorously protect our brand. We are very concerned about the confusion the Air Azul name might create and have asked Air Azul to change their name.”
Azul means “Blue” in Spanish. If that wasn’t a poke enough, its slogan was “Come fly the new blue.” Bet the “old” blue didn’t take kindly to that, either.
Oddly enough, there’s also Azul Airlines in Brazil, started by - wait for it - former JetBlue head David Neeleman.
The Airline Formerly Known As Air Azul won’t directly comment about JetBlue, just saying, “The more we don’t use that word, the better everybody is.”
(Another funny note - there’s a Jet America Ltd. out there that apparently flies small jets on a contract basis. I guess the lack of a space in JetAmerica makes all the difference).
A note of clarification -”Sun America” is the holding company for Air Azul, now JetAmerica. It never was an interim name. That’s been the one constant the past few months.
Of course, it wasn’t just the name thing that forced the new airline to delay startup.It’s changed which airline it’s leasing planes from (with no word why), it’s changed CEOs (with the new guy still a secret) and it seems to have a different marketing bent. I did erronously report that it’ll use bigger planes - the planes will be the same size, but configured for more seating (so you’ll pay less, but have less legroom).
Not that you all care about little old me, but I was one of those who booked a flight in June on Air Azul and had to make other plans. Thankfully, my A+ Rewards credits on AirTran meant I could fly MKE-LGA for less, including parking and gas.
More on JetAmerica as we hear it. This certainly is a turbulent takeoff.
