Yesterday many news sources around the world reported about long delays at airports in the Northeastern section of the United States due to snow storms. There were a particularly large number of stories concerning the airline JetBlue. If you don’t know what I’m talking about here’s a little excerpt.
“JetBlue Airways Corp. tried to calm a maelstrom of criticism Thursday, after passengers were left waiting on planes at a New York airport for as long as 11 hours during a snow and ice storm.” Read full Story.
I’ve read the story and several others and find the whole idea fascinating. Most of us have flown before, I say most because I know my grandmother hasn’t and there are probably others, granted they probably don’t use computers either, although I’m not sure if there would be any real correlation between the two. Anyway back to the point, we’ve all heard airline horror stories or even possibly experienced them. Maybe someone was stuck in a terminal all day, all flights being canceled to every destination, possibly you’re stranded over a holiday or maybe it’s all of the above and you have to end up hitching a ride to Chicago with a polka band to get to your son who was left home alone.(I love that movie.) But something I’ve never heard of is people actually waiting on a plane while it is grounded for multiple hours. I mean come on, how stupid can you be to make people wait for 11 hours on a plan. I mean you’re on the ground. Open up the door and let them out, it’s simple. You have to be an idiot not to see this. Could you imagine how boring and cramped it would have been on one of those planes? How many times you would have to cram yourself into the tiny bathroom to relieve yourself not to mention how hungry you would be after 11 hours. All they were given were snacks and we all know how good those are on a plane. Just imagine how stuffy it would have been. In the article it says they would open the hatch every 20 min just to let some fresh air in. What would you do? Computer batteries would die out after three hours magazines would be read through in several minutes. You would still have more than 7 hours left.
I’m a business major at the University of Arkansas and if I was running this company someone would be fired or many someone’s for that matter. There is no excuse to put passengers through that or even a paid crew unless you are almost certain you will be able to get them out quickly. At most it should take an hour and once that is hit and there’s no break in the weather you should head on back.
I’ve yet to hear much good about JetBlue and with who they seem to have running their airlines I can see why. Caution when you take your next flight, make sure to book it with a carrier you’re sure understands how to run an airline. If you don’t you could end up cramped in an airplane on a snow covered runway until spring.
