JetBlue CEO may talk himself out of a job

JetBlue Airways Corp. (NYSE:JBLU) Chief Executive David G. Neeleman needs to start worrying about whether the public will associate his low-cost airline with being cheap. Given his recent statements to the New York Times (subscription required), investors should also worry about whether he's starting to crack under the stress of bad publicity surrounding the huge number of weather-related cancellations.

As I argued before, people shouldn't be surprised by flight cancellations or delays caused by bad weather, But I gave JetBlue too much of the benefit of the doubt. The fact that the problems are continuing when the weather isn't nearly as bad is worrisome.

About 1,000 flights have been canceled over the past five days have been canceled over the past five days for "as the result of a shoestring communications system that left pilots and flight attendants in the dark, and an undersize reservation system," the New York Times said.

Neeleman's comments to the paper are unbelievable.

"We had so many people in the company who wanted to help who weren't trained to help," he said. "We had an emergency control center full of people who didn't know what to do. I had flight attendants sitting in hotel rooms for three days who couldn't get a hold of us. I had pilots e-mailing me saying, 'I'm available, what do I do?' "

Weren't trained? Didn't know what to do? Poor communication?

The fault for all of these problems lies ultimately with Neeleman. He told the Times that he was "mortified" by the screw ups.

Investors know that talk is cheap and that actions speak louder than words. But Neeleman will find that dealing with irate investors will be much harder than angry passengers. Wall Street is going to want more than a free flight on JetBlue to allay its concerns.

Neeleman is going to have to act fast or he will find that the skies for JetBlue will be very unfriendly.