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SAO PAULO, Brazil — The founder of JetBlue Airways announced plans Thursday for a new Brazilian airline that would begin operating next year with three jets and eventually grow to a fleet of 76 planes flying nationwide.
JetBlue Chairman David Neeleman said the opportunity is clear: Latin America's largest nation has a growing passenger travel market dominated by two airlines that face little domestic competition and charge high fares.

"The prices that people pay here in Brazil are 50% higher than the prices people pay in the United States," he said. "Brazil is a country that needs more competition and a different kind of competition."

Neeleman also said he is discussing his future as chairman of JetBlue with members of the New York-based carrier's board, and suggested that a decision on his departure from the post could come within several months.

"My attention needs to be here," he told a news conference in Sao Paulo, where the airline will have its headquarters.

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JetBlue Airways Corp. spokesman Bryan Baldwin said he was "not privy to conversations" that the board members have had about Neeleman. Baldwin declined further comment, and said Chief Executive Dave Barger was unavailable. Calls to most other JetBlue directors Thursday were not immediately returned.

In a statement issued late Thursday afternoon, Barger congratulated his predecessor on the new venture but gave no clue as to Neeleman's future at JetBlue.

"David is an expert at exploring market opportunities in the airline industry and stimulating travel demand," Barger said in the statement, adding: "On behalf of JetBlue's 12,000 crewmembers, I wish him well in this new endeavor."

Neeleman said his new venture has no connection to JetBlue, but some former JetBlue executives will join it. The new airline doesn't have a name yet, and will use midsize E-195 jets made by Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA. JetBlue operates a similar Embraer plane, the E-190, on many of its routes.

The new airline has placed an order for 36 of the 118-seat planes with Embraer, a purchase Neeleman valued at $1.4 billion. The carrier also has taken out options for 40 more planes that would give the overall deal a value of $3 billion.

The entry of the airline will bring the first serious competition in years to Brazil's TAM Linhas Aereas SA and Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, two carriers that have dominated air travel in Brazil since the collapse several years ago of Varig, the nation's former flagship carrier.

Neeleman said he has raised $150 million for the venture so far from investors in the United States and Brazil and that the group has deep enough pockets to compete in a fare war if one starts after his planes take to the skies.

"We have capital and we're ready for a war but we don't think a war will happen," he said.

The new carrier will add about one plane per month after it starts operating early next year, reaching a fleet of 76 within five years, Neeleman said.

There are no plans now for international routes, but Neeleman said it is a possibility because the Embraer jets could fly without refueling throughout most of South America.

The E-195 planes will be outfitted much like JetBlue's planes in the United States, using a single class where all seats are made of leather and each passenger can choose satellite TV channels to watch. Those sort of amenities are virtually unknown now in Brazil.

Neeleman was born in Brazil and has both Brazilian and American citizenship. That allows him to bypass a major hurdle: A law stating that foreigners can hold no more than 20% of Brazilian carriers.

He was ousted from his CEO job at JetBlue last May, less than three months after a bungled response to two winter storms forced the airline to cancel nearly 1,700 flights.

At the time, Neeleman said he understood the board's decision, saying he was more of a big-picture visionary than a nuts-and-bolts airline operations expert. Later, however, Neeleman expressed surprise that the board moved so quickly.

Less than a month after his ouster, Neeleman sold 2.5 million shares of JetBlue stock, or 23% of his holdings at the time, his first-ever sale of company stock. He has since raised nearly $30 million in a series of JetBlue stock sales.