Travel

JetBlue Cancels 215 Flights Due to Storm

posted: 16 March 2007 08:27 am ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- JetBlue canceled 215 flights Friday because of a winter storm in the eastern U.S., aiming to avoid the days of cancellations and criticism that followed a storm last month, an airline spokesman said.

The cancellations affected about one-third of all JetBlue flights. More than 200 of them involved flights to or from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, said company spokesman Sebastian White.

He said a few flights also were affected at New York's LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, and Boston's Logan International Airport. In addition, the airline had canceled 15 flights Thursday night, White said.

The airline has been under pressure to do better in bad weather since passengers were stranded in planes at Kennedy for up to 10 1/2 hours during a storm last month. JetBlue was unable to resume normal operations for days afterward because flight crews were not where they were supposed to be.

White said Friday's cancellations were intended to ensure that crews would be available where needed, and that departure gates would be free in case weather forced planes to return, he said.

JetBlue has been striving to regain customers' esteem since a Feb. 14 snow and ice storm left hundreds of passengers marooned on parked planes at Kennedy. The airline had hoped to get through the storm without canceling flights, but later acknowledged it waited too long to ask airport authorities for help getting passengers off the stranded planes.

Passengers whose flights were canceled Friday were offered refunds or a chance to rebook travel through April 30 without paying a fee for the change, White said.

New York-based JetBlue Airways Corp. normally operates about 600 flights a day to various destinations in the United States, Bermuda and the Caribbean.