On time performance
 

Hey Guys. I love JetBlue, but today I have had it. I checked online, and for the 4th week in a row my plane has been delayed by 1 hour or more from CMH to JFK. I've already gotten $150 in credits and 1 free round trip flight but I can't stand being up all night. Last week my flight scheduled to leave at 7pm left at 1am the next day. JetBlue really needs to prepare better. My flight always gets delayed going into and out of JFK before coming here to CMH and back to JFK. Any idea when they might fix this with better planes or more available planes at JFK? I'm going to have to go with US Airways until this gets fixed.

What were the reasons for the delays?

Delays
 

All flights to/from the New York Metro area are delayed today because of bad weather. Here in NY it's been extremely cloudy, rainy, and windy since last night and according to the Weather Channel we aren't supposed to see sun until Monday. This delay is due to weather. It's not within JetBlue's control.

I hear the NYC weather is crummy all weekend.

Whilst I'm sure that JetBlue appreciates your business you must understand that the northeast metro New York airspace is without exception the busiest airspace in the world. Unfortunately even on a clear day you are likely to be delayed. I understand that you are frustrated but I don't think that switching to USairways is going to help your cause. Firstly you will have to go to LGA which is generally more delay prone, and you are flying from CMH which I bet isn't too high up on the USairways priority list. What I mean to say is that USairways would much prefer to delay your CMH flight, which I guess is a regional jet, so that they can use the slot for a larger aircraft on one off their more important shuttle routes. I think that the only possible solutions to the current traffic problems is a slot control of both JFK and EWR and or restrictions to the size of equipment that can use these airports. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any relief in sight. Lately I have been experiencing more and more holding as I fly into and out of New York even when the weather is beautiful. Again, many of the delays that people are experiencing are a direct result of ATC flow control and traffic management, thus for the most part the individual airlines have very little control, so I really don't know what changes you specifically want. It is definitely okay to come on to this forum and vent your frustrations but at least for me your assertions that JetBlue should prepare better just don't hack it unless you give me some positive or possible alternate scenerios. I commuted out of JFK last night at about 7:30 pm and we sat inline on the taxiway for over an hour waiting our turn to depart. All I can say is thank god for IFE and 36 inches of legroom. You bet we were more comfortble than any other domestic class passenger at JFK last night. What I do find irritating is the inefficient use of the runways at JFK by ATC. I realize that ATC is restricted by LGA and EWR traffic but I believe that they could better utilize their configurations for both arrivals and departures. Again when airports like JFK go into IROPS than you will always experience delays, both inbound and outbound, as ATC requires more restrictive spacing. Takeoff intrail restrictives of 25-30 miles can slow departures to 1 every 3-4 minutes. These numbers seem minimal but there is definitely a cumulative ripple effect throughout any airlines system. I am sorry but I believe that if you swap your business over to any other carrier going into NY you are just going to experience the seem issues.

To the OP, welcome to FT (on your first post)! As mentioned above, NY weather has been and looks like it will continue to be crappy. Unfortunately, this is what happens in congested traffic and bad weather situations. At least with jetBlue you got compensated for some of your delays...good luck trying to get even a bottle water from US Airways during a delay!

keepreosellinas, welcome to FT!

dietcoke, great explanation once again! I heard something that jetBlue (and other airlines) were working with JFK and the FAA on ATC issues at JFK. Aren't they somewhat better utilizing the runways now? ie. takeoffs on 31R and landings on 31L...or something along those lines?

As far as I know we have specific people who's sole purpose is to work with ATC to try and keep the operation moving along. I really don't know if its a good thing but Russ Chew our new COO was in a past life head of the FAA's ATC system. It was interesting to hear Mr Chew say recently that JetBlue will be an ontime airline. It will be interesting to see what his game plan is. I personally believe that we need to concentrate growth away from JFK and I suspect that we will continue to see growth out off Boston but more importantly the west coast and the carribean. Whilst I have nothing but respect for David Neeleman it will be nice to see Dave Barger running the operation without a 800lb gorilla around his neck. In answer to your question about runways 31L/R. You are correct, ATC generally land JB and AA on 31R whilst Delta normally goes to 31L. This utilization of these runways is infact pretty good, however these runways could and should be used more effciently for departures. Departing 31L is the most common departure as you are generally given an immediate left turn out over breeze point and the Atlantic. Unfortunately if you depart 31R then you fly right into LGA's airspace. I still believe that northbound departures should be allowed to depart 31R and be given an immediate right turn to avoid LGA. The airspace unfortunately is very restrictive. I wish we could get some ATC people on here who could better voice their professional expertise. I do find it interesting that the Dash 8's are allowed to depart 31R whilst all jet traffic most go to the left side.

Interesting. Are the taxiway exits on 31L closer to T6? Also, I am no "expert" but could it be the Dash 8s depart 31R because they are lighter and need less runway space to become airborne, thus enabling a quicker right bank to aboid LGA airspace?

Why doesn't JFK utilize Runway 4L more often? I think that it has the capabilities to handle all types of aircraft. If it does, they could run the same kind of operation that Laguardia does. Once the landing plane passes the intersection point, another departing plane has the chance to go. Or, if they maintain the current operation, couldn't they do alternating departures and landings on the same runway? I know that Heathrow has that program, and it maximizes the amount of movements that can occur with a safe distance.

Anecdotaly, I've heard it's ANC (perhaps based on some size calculation, eg given the size of the ANC airspace vs. NYC) with all the military airspace, TONS of small craft landing on the water all the time, and of course plenty of cargo/commercial at ANC itself. Nothing to back that up, just what I heard while up in ANC, and judging by the spotting anywhere in the city, I might believe it! At least with the calculation caveat on there, as with ORD v ATL as busiest airports.

I've been monitoring the CMH-JFK and CMH-BOS routes will some regularity recently. While dietcoke is largely correct that ATC delays affect all airlines, I have noticed that in good weather, B6 is a bit more often delayed where US and AA are not (AA for CMH-BOS in particular). I think it *may* have to do with the turnaround times for the aircraft, but I'm not sure.

It really all comes down to the prevailing winds. JFK really prefers to use 31L/R when the wind is blowing from the north or north north west. Likewise when there is a southern wind they prefer 13L and 22L for landings and 13R for departures. The 4s are generally underutilized because they are further from the terminals and therefore present more of a challenge to the ground controllers. I all my years I still don't know which airport, JFK,LGA or EWR, primarily dictates the traffic flows for the NY area.

Sorry, but the New York area is without doubt the busiest airspace in the world. ANC doesn't even come close. Within 30 miles of central Manhatten you have JFK, LGA, EWR, TEB, ACY, HPN and FRG. Additionally your have airports like ISP, PHL, SWF and BDL.

I hope that your wife made it safely to CMH.

We just got back from the airport! :)

Arrived at 2:29am, but she arrived.

I'm glad that she made it. I just looked up the crew (flt 1099) but unfortunately I didn't recognize anyone I knew. I was encouraging to see that the plane was completely full. I didn't even bother to check the NY weather, was it that bad???

Apparently JFK was ok but the delay was getting out of IAD for some reason. It was a long day; we just woke up. :)

Do you wanna say that the NY area has TOO MANY airports?

A solution to the crowded airspace would be to cut the number of departures and arrivals allowed (slots). To make up for the loss, you could increase aircraft capacity (Airbus 380 anyone?).

Well, I did end up going with US Airways, and I got in much earlier. I live in Southeastern CT so it is always a toss up between JFK/LGA and BDL. I got into BDL just fine. The first time my plane was delyed was weather, the second was a faulty flight computer and the third was weather. Forturnately US Air has several flights that have connections to BDL from CMH. Overall I am now flying US Air, though I am still taking B6 to Florida on vacation. I think they delays have been part the fact that the B6 hub is JFK, which is in a delay prone area and the fact that E190 is new and buggy.

Btw, the most recent issue of Consumer Reports, which ranks JetBlue as the top airline in the country, also rates JetBlue's on-time record as "above average." This is based on the percentage of survey respondents who reported a flight delay of 1 hour or longer. I found this interesting since JetBlue on-time performance has generally been below the industry average as reported by the Department of Transportation. The survey was also conducted before the February meltdown. However, if you look in the DOT site where they break down delays by cause, you'll see that the vast majority of JetBlue's delays are weather or ATC-related, or due to late arriving aircraft, which is the domino effect. They have a low incidence of "airline-related" delays, especially compared to some of the express carriers, many of which have a greater incidence of at-fault delays than ATC/weather delays!

Over the last few weeks JetBlue's on-time performance has been above 85%. I flew JFK-BOS-JFK this past Tuesday (day trip), and both flights arrived 20 minutes early at both destinations.

It looks like as long as the weather is decent, so is JetBlue's timeliness.