JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ:JBLU) canceled 68 flights scheduled to come in and out of its hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport today because forecasts were calling for the region to get hit with as much as 7 inches of snow.
The storm may not be as bad as originally thought. Forecasts this morning on Weather.com are calling for 1 to 3 inches of snow tonight. Did JetBlue overreact? Maybe. But the low-cost airline has good reason to be cautious.
JetBlue's performance is under an electron microscope following the disastrous performance on Valentine's Day in which people were trapped on board planes for hours that never took off. Chief Executive David Neeleman has apologized more than Bill Clinton, Michael Richards and Mel Gibson combined and has offered what he calls a Passenger Bill of Rights that gives vouchers if their flights are delayed.
All hope isn't lost for JetBlue. Judging from the huge response to my previous post, the airline has plenty of fans. The public is fickle though.
People aren't stupid. They understand that airlines don't always run on time and that luggage gets lost. JetBlue will lose the goodwill it enjoys if the public starts to think that it doesn't know what it's doing.
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