JetBlue Airlines 2003 Annual Report Download - page 20

We believe that we carefully select, train and maintain a productive workforce of caring,
passionate, fun and friendly people who want to provide our customers with the best flying experience
possible. We assist our employees by offering them flexible work hours, initial paid training, free
uniforms and benefits that begin on the date they start work. We also provide extensive training for our
pilots, flight attendants, technicians, customer service agents, dispatchers and reservation agents which
emphasizes the importance of safety. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, we reinforced
our commitment to our employees by not furloughing or terminating any of our employees. In 2003, we
began leadership training for our all our supervisors and managers because having the right leaders in
place across our organization is important to ensure our employees have the right tools and skills to
support our customers.
Part of our business plan is to reward our people by allowing them to share in our success and
align personal successes with those of JetBlue. Our compensation packages include competitive salaries,
wages and benefits, profit sharing and an employee stock purchase plan. In addition, a significant
number of our employees, including FAA-licensed employees, participate in our stock option plan. We
review our compensation packages on a regular basis in an effort to ensure that we remain competitive
and are able to hire and retain the best people possible.
Maintenance
We have an FAA-approved maintenance program, which is administered by our technical
operations department. Consistent with our core value of safety, we hire qualified maintenance
personnel, provide them with comprehensive training and maintain our aircraft and associated
maintenance records in accordance with FAA regulations.
The maintenance performed on our aircraft can be divided into three general categories: line
maintenance, maintenance checks, and component overhaul and repair. Line maintenance consists of
routine daily and weekly scheduled maintenance checks on our aircraft, including pre-flight, daily,
weekly and overnight checks, and any diagnostics and routine repairs. Although the majority of our line
maintenance is performed by our own technicians, in certain circumstances we subcontract our line
maintenance to outside organizations.
Maintenance checks consist of more complex inspections and servicing of the aircraft that cannot
be accomplished during an overnight visit. These checks occur at least every 15 months and can range
in duration from a few days to approximately a month, depending on the magnitude of the work
prescribed in the particular check. We utilize Air Canada to perform our maintenance checks under the
oversight of our personnel. Our first scheduled heavy airframe structural inspection occurred in
December 2003.
Component overhaul and repair involves sending engines and certain parts, such as, landing gear
and avionics, to third party FAA-approved maintenance repair stations for repair or overhaul. We
utilize Pratt and Whitney, MTU, Rolls Royce East Kilbride and IHI, four of the joint venture partners
who build our engines, for overhaul and repair of our engines.
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