“JetBlue CEO resigns, will be replaced by Joanna Geraghty”| Daily menu

JetBlue said on Monday that C.E.O Robin Hayes He will resign next month and will be replaced by the president of the airline. Joanna GeraghtyShe will be the first woman to head a major American airline.

Geraghty (51 years old) joined. JetBlue in 2005, and has taken on an increasingly prominent role at the New York-based airline in recent years, including as president and chief operating officer in 2018.

Geraghty said she was honored to take on the new role and said she looked forward to “as we execute on our strategic initiatives, returning to profitable growth and generating sustainable value” for shareholders.

“The challenges and extraordinary pressures of this job have taken their toll, and following the advice of my doctor and after speaking with my wife, it is time for me to focus more on my health and well-being,” Hayes said in a statement.

The change at the top will happen on February 12th. Happens while JetBlue He's waiting for a federal judge in Boston to decide whether he can buy Spirit Airlines For $3.8 billion in an attempt to quickly become a competitor to the largest American 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 has joined the company JetBlue in 2008 and became CEO in 2015. He pushed the airline to get started Transatlantic voyages And create a partnership in the northeast with American Airlines. However, the deal with American was dissolved after the Department of Justice successfully sued to invalidate it.

JetBlue It is the country's sixth-largest airline by revenue, just behind the fifth-largest airline, Alaska Airlines. Hayes has sought mergers for several years to get closer in size to American, Delta, United and Southwest.

JetBlue tried to buy Virgin America In 2016, but Alaska Airlines outbid. In 2022, Hayes prevailed when JetBlue beat out Frontier in a deal with Spirit, the nation's largest low-cost airline.