Boraxo

I sincerely hope JetBlue is fined bigtime for this inexcusable outcome. This is just the latest in many JetBlue screwups - apparently the airline is incapable of handling irregular ops. Hopefully a fine will incentivize management to become proactive rather than reactive.

And if BDL is somehow at fault then the FAA needs to address that issue ASAP. There is no situation when "no gates" are available for 7 hours. If all gate are occupied then one can simply direct an aircraft away from a gate and pull another one up. Presumably they have some trained pilot that is capable of driving a plane on the runway, no? And they would have to offload any passengers within 3 hours even if they were waiting for a takeoff slot due to weather.

Analise

So the FAA diverted 23 flights to land at BDL....an airport that claims it doesn't have the people to handle the activity. They can't even get people on to buses to take them terminals. Why weren't gates made available.

Not just Jetblue but the FAA needs to be investigated. Bradley Int'l Airport needs to be investigated.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/fe...printArticle=y

So why is Jetblue only at fault? Bradley was inept and the FAA sent the flights there. How it takes Bradley over 7 hours to bring buses to bring people to terminals is Jetblue's fault?

OPNLguy

This shouldn't be misconstrued as any kind of arbitrary defense of how everything played out that day, but there are so many comments here based upon inaccurate information and assumptions that I have to comment.

-The FAA didn't send or divert the flights to BDL--each airline did.

-The airport operator's personnel don't handle the the flight once on the ground--the airline's personnel do.

-There can indeed be reasons why gates are not available. Gate resources are finite, and if departures are delayed (due to ATC, weather (airport below takeoff minimums), snow amounts accumulating at a rate greater than de-icing holdover times allow, and other variables, departures can't depart, and that clogs up the gates such that anyone landing (scheduled flights or diverted flights) can't get to a gate.

-Most airport operators (have enough buses and portable stairs to serve a single aircraft, maybe two aircraft if one is lucky. The most common use is for when an aircraft blows a tire or is otherwise disabled on a runway or taxiway. If an airport has 20 gates total, it's completely unreasonable for an airport to have 20 sets of stairs and 20 buses to cover every worst-case scenario. It's the same reason that PHX doesn't have the same level of snow removal equipment that ANC does---Money, and cost-effective use thereof.

-If an aircraft is to be "simply" pushed off the gate to make room for another, where does the pushed aircraft park? There -is- a limit to how many aircraft can be parked at a given airport, and with 23 diversions at BDL, a "gridlock" scenario is more likely than many think. (With delays from summer thunderstorms clogging things up, it happens all the time at LGA, DCA, and PHL).

-BDL was also having intermittent power outages. Some jetways didn't work. The airports "fuel farm" (that either supplies trucks or an underground hydrant system) were also affected. No fuel means another reason why flights are not departing.

-There is no "simply", as in the airline coulda/shoulda done this, that, or whatever. If it was anywhere near as "simple" as everyone seems to think, doesn't some basic common sense suggest that the airlines/airport operator would have -already- taken all those oh-so-simple steps?

-If the buses were to be chartered from a third-party, are they even available? Can their drivers make it in to pick-up their buses? Can the buses even make it to the airport?

Again, not arbitrarily defending how the event was handled, but that said, it never ceases to amaze me that folks can readily acknowledge that snow events like this will adversely affect their personal driving plans, and train schedule, yet airlines are expected to operate as if it were sunny and 75 degrees out.

dunderhead

There must be the maximum fine...plus every passenger gets his/her fare refunded AND a complimentary r/t with no black out dates or capacity controls. Otherwise, pull their certificate and let them be an example to all the other arrogant blowhards that sit in airline CEO suites looking down at their clientele and thinking of every which way to belittle, humiliate, and gouge them. It takes a special mind-set to be an airline CEO, one that any other consumer goods company would not want to engage.

Ambraciot

Paving the way for AA to buy B6 in bankruptcy court?

bmg42000

I agree with what you are saying. If you read the press, the A320 can now hold 200 passengers. It is easy to armchair CEO/COO but its not easy to do it in real time. On the otherhand, if you see its snowing out (and assuming B6 had the fare waiver) and traveling with kids (and you can afford a hotel for another day), you may wish to change flights. On a sunny days the flights to NY have delays. On the other hand the airlines may need to be more proactive when they are waiving the change feeds (putting up a sign at the airport and having extra help to change the flights ) would be a good start (or letting us change it on our own via the web) would be better. The best thing I did in 2007 was to switch my flight from B6 to Airtran (2 days before the storm) . I got my money back from B6 eventually but more important I got to my destination when I needed to be there (for an 80th and 95th birthday parties ). I chose Airtran because the flights were a lot cheaper then Jetblue's.

uastarflyer

Just because one is a fan of JetBlue doesn't relieve them of their responsibility. They are at the top of that list by a long shot.

hotelmotel

I missed the reports of 20 stranded planes requiring stairs and buses. I believe I read of 2. What were the other 18 that overwhelmed the resources reasonably assumed to be on hand?

LarryJ

I've seen reports indicating as many as 30 diversions to BDL. Other reports have been in the mid-20s. I've seen 26 a number of times.

With that many diversions, with relatively few resources, the flights that are at the end of the line are going to have a lengthy delay even under the best circumstances.

Brighton Line

I was at BDL on Sunday at around 11am as my Enterprise Car had a busted window from the storm. There was NO POWER anywhere at BDL or even near BDL as of 9am. I don't know when the power failed only that at 9am Enterprise Road Side Assistance contacted Enterprise at BDL to arrange the swap of the car and was told they did not have power.
We even had an issue with the replacement car and only a quarter tank of gas. Driving down I91 looking at intersections from overpasses to see if the traffic lights work in order to find open gas stations.

That said, when did BDL loose power?
Did they have sufficient backup power?
How did that effect BDL operations and/or the diverted flights?

jacklee

instead of questioning all of the above here's my simple thoughts on the fiasco.

1. there is no reason for a place to be stuck with passengers for 7 hours. you mention gridlock, and i understand during normal operating procedures there are safetly limits in place, but in an emergency situation such as this- i'm pretty sure that planes can be moved around slightly so that a gate could be opened up to deplane these passengers.

2. there's no use questioning if a plane should be cancelled etc etc...the bottom line is once they landed there is no need for them to be on a plane- and as complicated as it may have been, i'm pretty sure that they could've gotten a door open, and the passengers out.

...

the failure as some have pointed out is that no one wanted to go above and beyond. they simply said- i can't do something without approval from so and so...and left if at that.

OPNLguy

With all due respect, I think you need to go back and re-read my statement.

-I never said BDL has 20 gates. However many gates BDL actually does have, the point I was trying to make (evidently missed) was that there are not enough back-up resources (gates, stairs, buses) available to anywhere near replicate the "normal" level of resources at any given airport, let alone sufficient personnel to operate everything.

-Although it might not have been specifically mentioned in the media, with reportedly anywhere between (as LarryJ notes) 20-30 diverted flights on the deck at BDL (and that's in addition to the number of scheduled flights that were already there) it's a pretty safe bet that not all of those 20-30 diverted flights had open gates immediately available to them, and were also stranded until something came open. Perhaps one of the reasons those flights haven't been specifically mentioned is because they were able to be brought into gates before the 3-hour bell rang. In any case, if there are X-number of aircraft waiting, somebody gets to be number-1st and someone gets to be number-last.

I have to return to a previous statement I made, re: if things were as simple as all the non-airline airline experts believe, doesn't it stand to reason that those "simple" actions would have already been taken? The truth remains that things are not as simple as some believe. When an overload in demand occurs that exceeds capacity, delays occur. It's really no different than being stuck in a freeway traffic jam and unable to exit--and we seem to expect the highway department to come out, wave a magic resource wand and conjure up a couple of new lanes to increase capacity to meet the spike in demand.

In that same vein, I'd like everyone to think about what profession they're in, what the public conceptions (and misconceptions) of that profession are, and how the media covers your profession as far as accuracy and proper context go. Do they get it correct on stuff you know about as an insider?

Boraxo

It does not take 7 hours to offload 20 planes, even if you send them all to 1 gate. Southwest can do it in 15 minutes.

Nor does it take an expert to understand that bad weather is a foreseeable event that can easily be handled through conginency planning if airline execs decided it was worth the time and resources. This is done all the time for hurricanes. However it is clear airline execs: (1) Don't care, because there is no penalty for guessing wrong and/or (2) Take risks because it costs less than doing the right thing (proactively cancelling flights) and/or (3) are incompetent when it comes to contigency planning. For JetBlue this is all the more offensive given the airlines track record. And BDL was not an airport that lacked a JetBlue presence.

There is no way that passengers can force an airline to correct its procedures, except by voting with their feet (which can easily be offset by an airline sale). But the FAA can have an effect by assessing fines, which will affect management paychecks (less money for bonuses) and the bottom line, where shareholders may decide that a change is appropriate.

toomanybooks

Why were 26 (or whatever) planes diverted to an airport that obviously could not handle the situation? Or am I misunderstanding? Is that explained anywhere?

All I know is, if this ever happens to me, I predict I will get chest pains after 3 hours and an email to that effect is going out from my phone to everyone I can think of.

You are worried about me deplaning on icy steps after 5 hours? I WILL SIGN A WAIVER OF LIABILITY.

Nothing but excuses, finger-pointing, and blame-shifting.

B6 needs to get slammed hard and a bunch of people need to get fired and/or reprimanded and named publicly. What an utter bunch of clowns. After 2007, this is insane. A pigeon learns faster.

jn in ca

I really think what you are writing makes the opposite point from the point you are trying to make. Let me explain.

The claim is that there were a couple dozen (we won't quibble about the exact number) of planes diverting to BDL. That is more than the jetways, stairs, buses, etc. can handle in a storm, so inevitably someone would have to wait 7 hours. To me, that seems to be what is being said.

However, the fact is that dozens of planes diverted to BDL in horrible weather, yet only Jetblue had passengers that sat on the tarmac beyond the 3 hour rule. (We'll exclude the AA flight from France, because it is still being determined if that was the fault of the Customs Enforcement staff.)

How did every other airline get their passengers off under the 3 hour rule? It appears that only Jetblue diverted to an airport where they had insufficient resources to handle their own diverted planes; Rather than taking the time beforehand to have a plan to determine which airport would have the necessary resources.

Jetblue management deserves every bit of woop-a** that is headed their way.

I can say people I know, with Jetblue SFO-BOS tickets, have rebooked to other airlines.