By: Hellen Zaboulani
By Monday, hundreds of weekend travelers flying JetBlue were fuming over delays and cancellations which left them stranded at airport terminals overnight or waiting on the runway for hours. As reported by the NY Post, customers were also vexed that the airline didn’t cancel flights until the last minute. On Sunday, patrons complained telling the Post that JetBlue kept them “hostage” at airport terminals overnight, amid weather delays associated with the Nor’easter storm. “I’ll never fly JetBlue again,” said Claudia Agun, who was trying to fly to New Mexico. She told The Post she’d been sleeping in the departures area since Saturday due to flight complications.
At some point, some 20 inbound flights were left waiting on the tarmac for unable to reach a gate, said aviation expert Jason Rabinowitz. A source familiar with the situation said JetBlue was facing a staffing shortage, so there weren’t enough ground and gate support workers.
Additionally, tracking site Flight Aware indicated that about half a dozen flights were diverted to Newark Airport in New Jersey without prior warning to passengers. Customers who finally arrived at their destinations had a new challenge of finding and collecting their luggage.
By mid-day on Monday afternoon, close to half of JetBlue’s flights leaving New York were still delayed, and roughly 9 percent had been canceled, as per the departures board at the terminal.
Passengers took to social media to voice their frustration and to demand an explanation. “I’m convinced @JetBlue kept everyone hostage in jfk long enough that now they don’t have to pay for people to have a hotel,” passenger Anni Stoll, tweeted. “There are families w babies …it’s so disorganized and we can’t leave who knows where our luggage is!” Her flight from JFK to Buffalo was scheduled to leave on Sunday at 8 p.m., but was repeatedly delayed by five hours. Then after boarding they sat on the runway for an hour only to disembark and meet more delays till 6 a.m. The flight was finally canceled at about 7 a.m., she told the Post.
On Monday, JetBlue apologized to customers for the delays, saying it often does take time to recover from a heavy storm. “After this weekend’s heavy snow and freezing temperatures in the northeast, we are focused on safely resuming our flight schedule,” a rep told The Post. “We have made good progress in ramping up operations in Boston, LaGuardia and Newark.” “At JFK, we started operations on Saturday as planned but faced a number of conditions that have slowed the operation down,” he conceded.
