Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Airport operator blames airlines for JFK mess

At a press event for the A380 arrival in JFK, the head of the airport operator (PANYNJ) blamed the airlines for "bad decisions" ... "There's no excuse," Shorris said, adding that airlines "did a disservice to their reputations. . .We've been telling airlines that we will not accept our passengers being treated this way."

PANYNJ is stating that the airlines are responsible for de-icing, and the lack of de-icing fluid which delayed some flights, including CX, was an airline problem.

The majority of flights out of LGA/E18WR/JFK were canceled (only 787 out of 1849 flights operated on Saturday, and only 133 were less than 45 min late).

Does CX contract for its own de-icing at JFK? I suspect BA probably does this, on behalf of the other T7 OW airlines which have a lot fewer flights than BA. In which case, is it the case that the BA flights got priority in being de-iced, at the expense of CX? We'll never know, but the contracts probably need some revision.

This is an important point because so often the airlines can imply that the problem was outside their control thereby shifting the blame, whether that be in JFK, LAX, or elsewhere. The airports are in a bind with the airlines as their clients. It puts them in a difficult position to set the record straight. You can imagine the difficulties behind the scenes in August last year at LHR between BA and the BAA with the sudden implementation of the increased security checks and the flow on effect that this had.

It is not often that the public gets to hear such a candid response from senior airport personnel that you quote above.

I guess the cynic in me says this is just a bureaucrat throwing private businesses under the proverbial bus - after the fact. If his agency 'cared' so much about 'their passengers' wouldn't they keep some level of oversight of flight and safety critical operations - if they are in fact outsourced.

These statements remind me of Charles Schumer's shameless grandstanding after the TWA 800 tragedy.

I am quite sure that CX does not do its own ground handling at JFK. For that matter, I am not sure that BA does. There are several companies such as Swissport and Dynair (they may not be around any more) that do this on a contractual basis. In any event, they most likely are subcontractors to the airline and, as such, if that is the case, the airline would have ultimate responsibility.

No idea if this was relevant to the de-icing problems, but JFK happened to have rolled out a new de-icing facility, with the press release making this boast: "As the services expand at JFK, challenges and opportunities will be presented, but I know that Penauille Servisair has almost unparalleled experience in operating very large de-icing facilities and will rise to the occasion ". Apparently this JFK de-icing facility was several times larger than the previous largest; seems like it failed the stress test. And yes, the reason for the new facility was to reduce the cost of de-icing. In which case they've blown a few years' worth of savings in the costs for last weekend's fiasco.