Travel News - Blizzard's cost to airlines may hit $150 million

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The blizzard that wreaked havoc on the East Coast this week may cost airlines up to $150 million as planes sit idle following the cancellation of thousands of flights.

For the airlines, the costs are adding up in several ways.

There's the added expense of paying crew overtime and sleeping accommodations, de-icing operations, and fuel for planes that either idle on the runway and don't take off or planes that were repositioned for the storm.

In addition to the expense, there is also the loss of revenue.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/29/news/economy/blizzard_airlines_cost/index.htm

Don't they have a contingency plan for events like this? The article doesn't mention it. Many travelers are ending the holidays with a bitter feeling toward the airlines (according to an AP article).

Don't they have a contingency plan for events like this?

They used to have in the way of lower loads (number of seats filled vs total number on the plane), thus more (unused) capacity to help with rerouting people around. With the North Western EU and now the North Eastern USA blizzard you see huge numbers of people who have their flights cancelled or rerouted with several days of delays simply due to their being less elasticity and flexibility in overall carrier and network schedules.

Also factor in the disruption of your planes being stuck at the stricken airports and the need to keep other parts of a route network "afloat"...

In the end, the airlines also have to rely on the services that the airports can (or cannot, cough LHR) provide, I remember how much disarray a couple inches of snow caused at IAH a couple of years back, whereas that is laughed at in OSL, whereas the situation would be reversed if a Texas thunderstorm were to hit...

Don't they have a contingency plan for events like this? The article doesn't mention it. Many travelers are ending the holidays with a bitter feeling toward the airlines (according to an AP article).

It blows my mind how people are bitter towards the airlines. It's not like they want to sit around and not make money.

A plane only makes money when it's flying