Why is JetBlue the only airline having major issues right now?

[aphex]

I've been super busy lately so I haven't been following this entire story.... I heard about Passengers sitting on planes for 11 hours or so, and massive cancellations from the storms last week.

But what I am missing from the whole picture, is why is JetBlue the only one still having problems?

 

[Pepsi90919]

I've been super busy lately

keeping tabs on every airline in the world?

 

[hjo3]

From a Christian Science Monitor article:

As of Monday morning, JetBlue had still canceled 23 percent of its flights. Over the weekend, JetBlue's president, David Neeleman, apologized to inconvenienced passengers and said he was "mortified" by the airline's meltdown. In its attempts to keep costs down, it did not have enough staff properly trained to deal with a weather crisis of last week's magnitude. Its own pilots and flight attendants were stranded in airports while some planes sat empty, unable to fly because they had no crews.

 

[DaWhim]

not sure.

I took a flight with them today and they were just fine.

 

[CPA]

Due to weather, several flights had passengers stranded in the planes for up to 11 hours over the weekend. Jet Blue first blamed the airports and hub management, then they admitted they weren't prepared nor trained properly on how to handle the situation. They cancelled certain flights today to get their logistics back in order.

 

[Dunbar]

I would guess more than 90% of their flights go to/from their hubs in new england. They also run tight turn times and very high utilization (with lots of redeye flights.) So the weather had a disproportionate affect on their operations and that's starting with very little margin for error. Not to make excuses for them though, this isn't the first time this has happened.

 

[Sluggo]

There is no way in hell I would sit in a plane on the tarmac for 11 hours. If I could not get the door open, I would run up and down the aisles naked and smoking a cigarette so they would at least throw me in jail and let me off the plane.

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: Sluggo
There is no way in hell I would sit in a plane on the tarmac for 11 hours. If I could not get the door open, I would run up and down the aisles naked and smoking a cigarette so they would at least throw me in jail and let me off the plane.

haha...agreed

 

[MrDingleDangle]

wow 11 hours sitting on the plane?? I have been on planes where it seems like there will be a riot after 20-30 minutes...can't even imagine what the passangers were like after 11

 

[novasatori]

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
wow 11 hours sitting on the plane?? I have been on planes where it seems like there will be a riot after 20-30 minutes...can't even imagine what the passangers were like after 11

I was told they did not even run the engines or APU so there was no power, or A/C

this may be incorrect though - anyone have more info ?

Altogether though the troubles don't really surprise me the only thing that does is how an aircraft wound up trapped out on the tarmac for 11 hours and no one went to get them? that is totally ridiculous.

 

[MrDingleDangle]

Originally posted by: novasatori

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
wow 11 hours sitting on the plane?? I have been on planes where it seems like there will be a riot after 20-30 minutes...can't even imagine what the passangers were like after 11

I was told they did not even run the engines or APU so there was no power, or A/C

this may be incorrect though - anyone have more info ?

Altogether though the troubles don't really surprise me the only thing that does is how an aircraft wound up trapped out on the tarmac for 11 hours and no one went to get them? that is totally ridiculous.

Well hopefully they at least got to watch TV, Jetblue has a personal TV for each seat with 24 channels...

which allowed passengers to watch their own emergency landing at LAX a couple years ago live as it happened!

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
wow 11 hours sitting on the plane?? I have been on planes where it seems like there will be a riot after 20-30 minutes...can't even imagine what the passangers were like after 11

You obviously haven't tried flying from the States to Japan
DSM -> MSP -> NRT -> SIN -> KUL = one long a*s ride.

 

[V00DOO]

Originally posted by: novasatori

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
wow 11 hours sitting on the plane?? I have been on planes where it seems like there will be a riot after 20-30 minutes...can't even imagine what the passangers were like after 11

I was told they did not even run the engines or APU so there was no power, or A/C

this may be incorrect though - anyone have more info ?

Altogether though the troubles don't really surprise me the only thing that does is how an aircraft wound up trapped out on the tarmac for 11 hours and no one went to get them? that is totally ridiculous.

It's true. They had to open doors to so passangers could breath. I can't imagine the nightware of sitting still on a plane for 11 hours and not going anywhere. Some have small childrens too.

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Originally posted by: Sluggo
There is no way in hell I would sit in a plane on the tarmac for 11 hours. If I could not get the door open, I would run up and down the aisles naked and smoking a cigarette so they would at least throw me in jail and let me off the plane.

No wonder I like you. Remind me to get on a JetBlue flight with you in that scenario and I'll bring my camcorder.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: hzl eyed grl

Originally posted by: Sluggo
There is no way in hell I would sit in a plane on the tarmac for 11 hours. If I could not get the door open, I would run up and down the aisles naked and smoking a cigarette so they would at least throw me in jail and let me off the plane.

No wonder I like you. Remind me to get on a JetBlue flight with you in that scenario and I'll bring my camcorder.

Dude, sounds like you just got an invitation to join the mile high club...AND be a star on YouTube at the same time!

 

[MedicBob]

Originally posted by: WhoBeDaPlaya

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
wow 11 hours sitting on the plane?? I have been on planes where it seems like there will be a riot after 20-30 minutes...can't even imagine what the passangers were like after 11

You obviously haven't tried flying from the States to Japan
DSM -> MSP -> NRT -> SIN -> KUL = one long a*s ride.

Ok, now add 11 hours sitting on the ground. That was what happened.

 

[novasatori]

Originally posted by: MedicBob

Originally posted by: WhoBeDaPlaya

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
wow 11 hours sitting on the plane?? I have been on planes where it seems like there will be a riot after 20-30 minutes...can't even imagine what the passangers were like after 11

You obviously haven't tried flying from the States to Japan
DSM -> MSP -> NRT -> SIN -> KUL = one long a*s ride.

Ok, now add 11 hours sitting on the ground. That was what happened.

without ...
power
lights
tv
radio
a/c
heat

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Originally posted by: MedicBob
Ok, now add 11 hours sitting on the ground. That was what happened.

I realize that, but being in the air isn't all that much better either

 

[iamwiz82]

JetBlue has really fallen apart, like pretty much every other start up airline. This shows you how hard it is to function in that industry.

If they really wanted to, they could have gotten those people out of there. A plow, some airstairs, and a bus would have solved the problem.

 

[skimple]

There are a few reasons for what happened:

1 - If the airplanes returned to the gates, federal regulations would have prevented the pilot and flight crew from being able to fly for 12 hours or something. So the airline decided to keep waiting to see if a flight window opened up. Other airlines also did this, but for as long as Jet Blue.

2 - Because so many flights did not take off, Jet Blue's flight crews were "out of position" for their next flights. Jet Blue did not have the staff trained to properly locate and redirect flight crews. Other airlines (having more experience) have a larger and better trained ground crew to handle these situations.

3 - Most other airlines cancelled their flights well ahead of the storm, while Jet Blue attempted to keep their schedules. This is why you didn't this be more widespread to other airlines.

I think they tried to do the right thing to keep their passengers flying, but underestimated the impact of the storm, and over estimate their emergency capabilities.

 

[Sluggo]

Originally posted by: BoomerD

Originally posted by: hzl eyed grl

Originally posted by: Sluggo
There is no way in hell I would sit in a plane on the tarmac for 11 hours. If I could not get the door open, I would run up and down the aisles naked and smoking a cigarette so they would at least throw me in jail and let me off the plane.

No wonder I like you. Remind me to get on a JetBlue flight with you in that scenario and I'll bring my camcorder.

Dude, sounds like you just got an invitation to join the mile high club...AND be a star on YouTube at the same time!

Well, that has been my lifelong dream.

 

[MrDingleDangle]

well its pretty much what happened to denver and whichever airline had a hub there...man my friend got stuck in Denver for 4 days and didnt get a flight till xmas day

 

[Dunbar]

Originally posted by: WhoBeDaPlaya

Originally posted by: MedicBob
Ok, now add 11 hours sitting on the ground. That was what happened.

I realize that, but being in the air isn't all that much better either

I hope you're joking, being stuck on the ground is 10X worse. When you buy a ticket you know how long the flight is supposed to be. Being locked on a stationary plane for an undisclosed amount of time is much worse. Now add in an overflowing toilet, no food, limited drinks etc. and you have a nightmare after 3 hours, much less 11!

To a certain extent the airlines are damned if they do or damned if they don't. If they proactively cancel flights, and the weather isn't as bad as anticipated, passengers complain. If they continue operations and strand passengers on planes than they get bad media attention. But at certain point it becomes cruel and unusual punishment to lock people on an airplane. I really don't think they should sit on the ground like that for more than about 2 1/2 hours. Especially just so their crews don't time out, or so they can maybe make the continuation flights.

 

[Dunbar]

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
well its pretty much what happened to denver and whichever airline had a hub there...man my friend got stuck in Denver for 4 days and didnt get a flight till xmas day

Actually no, people got stuck at the airport not on airplanes. United canceled all of their flights starting about 10am that morning. I know because I was scheduled to fly through Denver that day. I didn't get to Chicago until 3 days later but at last I wasn't stuck at DEN airport for 4 days!

 

[dr150]

Originally posted by: aphex
I've been super busy lately so I haven't been following this entire story.... I heard about Passengers sitting on planes for 11 hours or so, and massive cancellations from the storms last week.

But what I am missing from the whole picture, is why is JetBlue the only one still having problems?

The papers attribute it to Jetblue not cancelling the flights early as the other airlines did (who played it smart and also avoided a PR disaster).

Instead, Jetblue got greedy and tried to run in bad weather. When the weather didn't break, customers in the que got angry and all the papers picked up on it.

The issues of running in bad weather showed that Jetblue didn't have the manpower/communications/contingencies in place to deal with fubar weather situation.