Yesterday was National Aviation Day — the anniversary of Orville Wright’s birthday and an annual observance to honor the development of aviation. It’s incredible to think how far we’ve come since the Wright brothers’ first fixed-wing aircraft in 1903, and we love being on the frontlines of the cutting edge innovation happening in the industry today.
Around the world, entrepreneurs are working on disruptive solutions to transform existing aviation infrastructure. One of our portfolio companies — Zunum Aero — is developing commercial hybrid-to-electric aircrafts for regional air service, designed to light up thousands of regional airports that are largely unused today. Another JTV company — Joby Aviation — is building a fully-electric, vertical take-off and landing passenger aircraft optimized to deliver air-transportation-as-a-service. Imagine taking a 15-minute Joby flying taxi from San Jose to San Francisco and avoiding all that traffic in between!
Beyond this type of high-speed community travel, we’re also focused on advancing aviation maintenance and operations, as well as improving the end-to-end customer experience. Check out some of our portfolio companies: ClimaCell, whose software makes weather delays and cancellations easier to predict — potentially saving someone hours of airport waiting time — and Volantio, which gives airlines an easier way to offer compensation for overbooking much farther in advance of the flight. Unicoaero, one of our most recent investments, is a trackable platform that assists airlines in delivering mishandled baggage to customers’ homes more efficiently.
We’ve also got our eyes on innovative tools to help deliver magnificent service. Gladly provides omnichannel customer service communication, allowing companies (like JetBlue!) to ensure personalized and comprehensive service at times when it’s needed most.
Thanks to the innovative spirit and mindset of JetBlue, our team at JetBlue Technology Ventures has been able to immerse in the startup scene like no airline before. But the companies we partner with don’t focus exclusively on aviation — we’re committed to making the whole travel ecosystem better, safer, and more efficient.
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