Jet Blue thoughts???

[lucky81698]

I know that CAL pre-cancels alot of flights when storms like this are coming. Not that long ago, they didn't and their operation was completely screwed up for a couple of days. I can't remember which storm it was though.

Normally SOCC (Sytems Operations Control Center), which can also be referred to as dispatch, flight control or a couple other names makes the decisions to cancel flights. Airlines have only one SOCC, which is normally located in the city where they are headquartered. They are usually the supervisors in these departments that make those decisions. If it is a complete mess like that was, then sometimes an even higher up (the supervisor's supervisor or even the director of the department) will get involved in deciding what to do. Then of course flight ops, (chief pilots) crew scheduling, marketing, and maintenance control usually throw their 2 cents into the mix too! That's how it worked when I was a dispatcher at several different companies. At one of the small airlines I worked for we didn't have a suprevisor other that the head of the department. We were pretty much on our own to make the decision to cancel flights, especially if it was on a weekend or after hours. It was funny because there were only 2 of us working at a time (both 23-25 years old) making decisions like that! Sometimes they weren't always the right ones and you would be answering some questions the next day! So I'm sure those working in SOCC at JB had to answer alot of questions the next day and I'm sure they realized how badly they screwed up. Hope that clears up who normally makes the decisions.

All airlines have these screw-ups once in awhile, it just got to the media so quickly and since it impacted JB's NY hub (which some people seem to think is the center of the universe NYC..haha) it got more publicity than the other airline's srew-ups.

[roz]

The other thing to remember is that the forecast changed. Originally the icy precipitation was to end late morning. Then it changed to continuing till 3 PM at which point it would change to a "wintery mix". That would continue until about 5 AM the next day.

Even I messed up with this. I called for a non-essential staff two hour delayed opening. I ended up sending non-essential staff home at 3 PM. Essential staff justed boarded up as we are a 24/7 facility.

[Kristie]

Originally Posted by DREAMJ

I haven't read all the details on what happened with jetblue but have been wondering what the other airlines did that day? I have not heard any media coverage on that. If they are saying it was the weather then other airlines should have had the same trouble, seems very odd to me. It seems it was not a good situation for the crew or passengers and Kristie, does corporate make those decisions? I understand each airport has their own hierarchy but does Doug have a comment on this? My df and I discussed this incident and he seems to feel it was a corporate decision by jetblue. Possibly waiting for the weather to clear and it did not happen. I had an experience similar but not so long timewise a couple of years ago on NW, de-icing in the winter and I was very grateful when the captain came on after 2 hours and said we are going back to the gate until we have a better idea of our actual departure time. This was due to a weather delay, but I was comfortable with the decisons made that day and we took off 3 1/2 hours late but just to be able to breathe after being on that plane was huge. Passengers started getting angry after about 1/2 hour sitting there, believe me the flight atttendants had their hands full.

I would think that if corporate had anything to do with it, the pilots would overrule because once the pilots are given the plane, it's to the crews discretion (for safety) isn't it?

my opinion would be that once the pilots are on the plane (whether door closed or not), they always have the go-no go advantage.