"There's definitely a lot of interest in it," said Linda Killian, a co- manager of the IPO Fund (IPOSX: news, chart, profile), run by Renaissance Capital. "There are so many buy-side people in New York and so many of us have flown JetBlue."

Air France was the last airline IPO that debuted shares in the U.S. back in 1999, according to IPO tracking firm Dealogic. Back in 1997, seven airlines debuted including Midway and Virgin Express (VIRGY: news, chart, profile).

Kew Gardens, N.Y.-based Jet Blue plans to offer 5.5 million shares at an estimated price range of $22 to $24.

In a sign of strong investor interest, JetBlue (JBLU: news, chart, profile) recently upped the top payoff of the deal to $132 million, from a maximum of $125 million in its original IPO filing in December.

Institutional stock buyers -- the big players in the IPO market -- are already quite fond of airline stocks.

Discount airline Southwest Airlines (LUV: news, chart, profile), which is often compared to JetBlue, has a marquee list of stockholders including State Street, which owns 12 percent; Fidelity, American Express Financial, Barclays Global Investors, TCW Group, Banc of America, Primecap Management, Janus, Vanguard, Alliance Capital and Putnam Investments, according to Mutlex.com.

JetBlue is the first of a series of airline IPOs planning to tempt investors this year. Earlier this week, ExpressJet, a unit of Continental (CAL: news, chart, profile), increased the size of its IPO in a bullish move. See full story.

Killian said the IPO sector, along with the broader market, continues to be stymied by uncertainty over the war in the Mideast, the threat of terrorism, and rising fuel prices.

Nevertheless, JetBlue has caught Wall Street's fancy with its flat price structure and crisp flight schedule, Killian said.

Overall, airline stocks have been gaining ground from their lows following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown analyst Susan Donofrio said in a note on Friday that recent March traffic results for the major airlines paced ahead of capacity reductions. A 9.1 percent decrease from year-ago traffic was logged, but activity rose from February

Jet Blue is working with underwriters Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch.

The company launched in February 2000 out of John F. Kennedy Airport and operated 108 flights a day as of Feb. 28. It's already turned a profit.