Investor Carl Icahn Secures Two Seats on JetBlue Board

20.02.2024 - 19:00 / travelpulse.com / Spirit Airlines / Joanna Geraghty / North America / Rich Thomaselli / Carl Icahn

Carl Icahn is already making his presence felt at JetBlue Airways.

The activist investor, who took a nearly 10 percent stake in the airline just days ago, has secured two seats on JetBlue's Board of Directors for his company.

Jesse Lynn, general counsel of Icahn Enterprises, and Steven Miller, portfolio manager of Icahn Capital, will join its board, JetBlue said on Friday. 

Lynn and Miller will serve as non-voting observers to the board through JetBlue’s annual meeting of stockholders this spring, after which time they will join the board as full voting members.

"We appreciate the constructive engagement we have had with JetBlue's board and leadership team," Icahn said in a statement.

JetBlue said the Icahn Group has agreed not to engage in a proxy fight.

"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Icahn Enterprises," JetBlue board chair Peter Boneparth said. "Our board and leadership team are focusing our full attention on taking aggressive action to return to profitability and strengthen JetBlue's foundation for the future. 

"We welcome Jesse and Steven to the board," Boneparth continued. "With their experience on public company boards, often when navigating key inflection points, they will add useful insights as we set JetBlue on a path back to long-term sustainable growth and shareholder value creation."

JetBlue has lost money in its shares for the last couple of years and, earlier in January, was blocked by a federal judge from merging with Spirit Airlines.

"We are already taking action to restore our historical earnings power," JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said. "We are executing more than $300 million of revenue initiatives this year, and are on track to deliver significant cost savings from our structural cost program, fleet modernization, and fixed cost base reductions."

"Building on our distinct brand and unique value proposition, we are focused on delivering value to our shareholders and all of our stakeholders, and we welcome the contributions of our new board members as we move forward with that common goal," Geraghty continued.

Since 2018, JetBlue has refreshed more than half of its executive board and added eight new independent directors, including the appointments announced of Lynn and Miller.

Still, It will be interesting to see how much power the noted investor wields.

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