--- title: JetBlue CEO Is Taking Off description: After months of speculation, JetBlue’s CEO is stepping down canonical: https://time.com/3399515/jetblue-david-barger/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-18T20:58:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:17:23.789Z article:section: World og:title: JetBlue CEO Is Taking Off og:description: After months of speculation, JetBlue’s CEO is stepping down og:url: https://time.com/3399515/jetblue-david-barger/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: JetBlue CEO Is Taking Off twitter:description: After months of speculation, JetBlue’s CEO is stepping down twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # JetBlue CEO Is Taking Off by [Dan Primack / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Dan Primack / Fortune Sep 18, 2014 8:58 PM CUT by [Dan Primack / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Dan Primack / Fortune Sep 18, 2014 8:58 PM CUT David Barger is stepping down as CEO of JetBlue when his current contract expires in February 2015\. He also will leave the company’s board of directors. Barger had been part of the airline’s founding team, and has served as its CEO since 2007\. Bloomberg first reported back in May that he was thinking of stepping down — in part due to a depressed stock price — but that no formal decision had been made. Earlier this month, Fortune’s Cyrus Sanati [wrote the following](http://fortune.com/2014/09/02/jetblue-will-need-to-fight-for-its-soul-against-wall-street/ "undefined"): --- > “” --- Barger will be succeeded by current JetBlue president Robin Hayes, a former British Airways executive who has been with the company since August 2008. JetBlue stock is up more than 5% in aftermarket trading on the news. [_This story originally appeared on Fortune.com_](http://fortune.com/2014/09/18/jetblue-ceo-david-barger-to-take-off/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3399515/jetblue-david-barger/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3399515/jetblue-david-barger/"},"headline":"JetBlue CEO Is Taking Off","datePublished":"2014-09-18T20:58:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:17:23.789Z","description":"After months of speculation, JetBlue’s CEO is stepping down","url":"https://time.com/3399515/jetblue-david-barger/","keywords":["Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Primack / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/companies/","name":"Companies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3399515/jetblue-david-barger/","name":"JetBlue CEO Is Taking Off"}}]}] ```