About this episode

This episode features an interview with Jason Ward from Azul Airlines discussing leadership, culture, and customer experience in the airline industry.

This is the fifth episode of our 2025 Airline Leaders Series, brought to you in partnership with 815Labs! For this episode, we traveled to Lisbon during the World Aviation Festival to meet with Jason Ward, Vice President of Marketing and People at Azul Airlines. In this episode, we talk about: How Jason’s journey across Morris Air, Southwest, JetBlue, TAP Portugal, and Azul shaped his people-first leadership style Why empathy and culture are the foundations of brand loyalty The OPA (Observe, Perceive, Attend) model and how it drives great service at Azul How technology and AI can enhance, not replace, the human touch Azul’s community-driven purpose and a breakdown of their special “O Céu do Brasil é Azul” (“The Sky of Brazil is Blue”) campaign Why curiosity and learning are still the most important skills for the future of airline leadership This episode offers a refreshing perspective on leadership, culture, and airline customer experience from one of the industry’s most experienced voices. RESOURCES:Full article with highlights and takeaways from this episode: https://diggintravel.com/airline-leaders-jason-ward-azul-airlines/

People in this episode

Host: Iztok Franko

Guest: Jason Ward

Topics covered

• leadership
• brand loyalty
• customer experience
• technology in aviation
• community-driven purpose
• airline marketing

Sponsors

815Labs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Azul Airlines, Morris Air, Southwest, JetBlue, TAP Portugal

Books & works: O Céu do Brasil é Azul

Places: Lisbon

More episodes of The Diggintravel Podcast

• How Airlines Become Data Driven: What Five Years of Airline Consulting Taught Me About Data · June 11, 2026 · 23 min
• Airline Leaders Interview Series – Juliana Ramirez [Flair Airlines] · October 20, 2025 · 51 min
• Airline Leaders Interview Series – Sara Walter de Freitas [TAP Air Portugal] · July 10, 2025 · 1h 2m
• Airline Leaders Interview Series – Sevilay Gökduman [Pegasus Airlines] · May 30, 2025 · 42 min
• Airline Leaders Interview Series – Ismael Monzon [Air Europa] · April 17, 2025 · 50 min
• Airline UX Series: Lessons in Building Digital Products & UX Teams and Solving the Build vs. Buy Dilemma · March 11, 2025 · 59 min

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