Ridiculous. All set to taxi on time 7:40 PM for this one hour flight (that turns into 4+ hours for no good reason). Just off the gate when pilot announces a ground hold at JFK, says he is being told this is due to traffic saturation at JFK. Meantime chatting with husband waiting at JFK. There are essentially no delays at JFK. The Flightstats delay index is 0 and "decreasing" all evening. No public reports of any untoward action of any kind at JFK.
We don't get off the ground till 9:30, 2 hours late. Smooth flight to JFK and approach announced. Then pilot announces "holding pattern" - we circle at 12000 feet for 20-30 minutes. Then we circle at 2000-3000 feet another 20 minutes or so. Who circles at 2000 feet? We all seriously thought there was a serious problem.
There minimal plane traffic to speak of on the ground and no delays at the airport. People are starting to freak out as the circling is never ending and too low to the ground. Stewardess handles a passenger panic attack. Pilot doesn't tell us anything else.
Oh wait - the only delays are a bunch of unexplained JetBlue ones. Not ones effected by weather anywhere. What is this about?!?!?! Does air traffic control have a beef with JetBlue? This was very weird. I fly alot and have never experienced such a strange unexplained bunch of circumstances.
I do not blame JetBlue. I blame air traffic controllers. I would really like to know what is going on. Any clues? Is this something to do with upcoming union changes at JetBlue? Why would air traffic controllers have an opinion on that?
I do see apparently maintenance work on a taxiway at JFK from 7PM according to Port Authority. If this is to root cause, why won't anyone tell us?
