Hundreds of passengers were stranded for hours overnight, the Associated Press reports, due to bad weather in the New York area. Pilots and officials blamed some of the problems on a shortage of deicing fluid and a new federal regulation giving pilots a narrow window to get their planes in the air once the chemicals are applied. The change has meant some jets need to get doused repeatedly if their takeoffs are delayed.
One Cathay Pacific Flight bound for Vancouver, British Columbia, was apparently waiting to leave from midnight through 9:30AM Saturday, leaving its passengers trapped. When the airline finally did cancel, it took at least another hour to get a gate. Other airlines that reported problems included South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines, the charter company Miami Air and Royal Air Maroc, the national airline of Morocco. Royal Air Maroc kept one plane full of passengers on the tarmac for nearly 14 hours and two Virgin Atlantic flights — one diverted from Boston — also were kept at a standstill for hours.
It is nice to know that people are willing to stop focusing on Jetblue and recognize they aren’t alone. Jetblue cancelled all of its New York flights yesterday, 215 flights Friday morning and 15 Thursday evening. All but 20 scheduled to depart or arrive from the three New York airports. It is said that the passengers this time are worse off than they might have been because Jetblue is afraid of media fallout because all eyes are on the them.