NEW YORK (AP) — JetBlue said Monday that CEO Robin Hayes will step down next month and be replaced by the airline’s president, Joanna Geraghty, who will be the first woman to lead a major U.S. carrier.
Geraghty, 51, joined JetBlue in 2005 and has taken on an increasingly prominent role at the New York-based airline in recent years.
The change at the top will occur on Feb. 12. It comes as JetBlue waits for a federal judge in Boston to decide whether it can purchase Spirit Airlines in a bid to grow quickly into a challenger to the biggest U.S. airlines. The Justice Department sued to block the deal, and a trial was held last fall.
Hayes, 57, is a former British Airways executive who joined JetBlue in 2008 and became CEO in 2015. He pushed the airline to start transatlantic flights and create a partnership in the Northeast with American Airlines. The deal with American was disbanded, however, after the Justice Department successfully sued to kill it.
JetBlue is the nation’s sixth-biggest airline by revenue, slightly behind No. 5 Alaska Airlines.
The Associated Press
