By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com
February 26, 2007
Leery of leaving passengers stranded too long on the JFK tarmac again, JetBlue cancelled more than 60 flights from its New York hub this morning -- while other airlines were flying on time. Flights were also canceled in Washington and elsewhere along the East Coast.
Worse, passengers aboard one plane were stranded on the tarmac for more than two hours.
A spokesman for JetBlue said Mondays cancellations were mainly a precaution, to make sure equipment and personnel were properly deployed for a resumption of service after the storm. The plane delayed on the tarmac for two hours was kept there for de-icing, and under the new policy, each passenger will receive a voucher for $100.
The cancellations were mostly at the airlines hub at New Yorks JFK Airport, but affected flights from other cities. The airline said passengers on affected flights may rebook without playing fees for fare differences. Affected destinations are Boston; Chicago/O'Hare; Columbus, OH; Newark, NJ; New York/LaGuardia; New York/JFK; Pittsburgh; Washington, D.C./Dulles.
Many flyers suggested the airline erred on the side of caution in the wake of a Feb. 14 fiasco that left nine planes on the John F. Kennedy runway for 6-10 hours.
Today's cancellations were made last night, when weather forecasters predicted a snowfall of 4-7 inches for the New York area coupled with a substantial dose of ice.
Snowfall in Manhattan this morning measured only an inch-and-a-half, with most of the precipitation moving quickly out to sea.
The new problems for the discount airline began last night, when one of its planes idled on the snowy tarmac for two-and-a-half hours before the flight was finally cancelled. Customers received vouchers, as promised by the airline's self-imposed Passenger Bill of Rights, but had to spend the night in New York.
The Feb. 14 ice storm resulted in a cascade of cancellations for the seven-year-old airline.
Before returning to full service on Feb. 20, it scratched some 1,000 flights from its schedule. The timing couldn't have been worse, stranding hundreds during the busy President's Day weekend.
JetBlue CEO David Neeleman, who founded the airline in 2000, made a myriad of public apologies, appearing everywhere from the YouTube internet site to David Letterman's late-night talk show. He also said the carrier would spend nearly $30 million in issuing vouchers to victims of the schedule changes.
Neeleman made the Passenger Bill of Rights retroactive to Feb. 14 so that victims of the ice storm delays would be covered.
