Hundreds of people stuck at New York airport due to flight cancellations and rescheduling

On January 31, JetBlue passengers at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport were furious after being stuck in terminals overnight or waiting on the runway for hours due to flight delays. New York Post.

“I will never fly JetBlue again,” said Claudia Agun, who flew to New Mexico from Turkey. She said that since January 29, she has been sleeping in the departure hall on a Turkish Airlines red blanket due to obstacles in the sky.

Christopher Broderick said he woke up at 3am for a scheduled trip on January 31st, but two flights to California were cancelled.

“I was going to give up flying on JetBlue in the future and now I have no doubt about the correctness of my decision,” he joked.

On the subject: New York covered with snow: a winter storm caused problems on the roads and in the sky

Passengers airlines complained on January 30 that they were being held "hostage" in airport terminals all night. JetBlue refused to cancel their flights until the last minute due to weather delays.

Aviation expert's comments

On according to aviation expert Jason Rabinowitz, at one point, about 20 incoming flights were strewn across the runway - some within hours - because they couldn't make it to the gate.

One source familiar with the situation said JetBlue was facing a shortage of gate staff and ground support. For this reason, you have to wait a long time to get the planes to the gate. It is unclear what caused the alleged shortage. Half a dozen flights were suddenly diverted to Newark Airport in New Jersey, as reported on the Flight Aware tracking site.

As of noon on January 31, almost half of JetBlue's flights from New York were still delayed. About 9 percent were cancelled, according to the departures board in the terminal.

As of the morning of February 1, two flights from JFK were delayed, as indicated on the website FLightRadar24. Flight B6121 to Nassau was delayed 3 hours with an expected departure time of 9:36. Also, flight B6149 to Point Salines is delayed, with an expected departure time of 7:59. Both flights are operated by JetBlue.

Social media complaints

Furious passengers took to social media to demand an explanation from JetBlue. Some said they were provided with vague news from airline employees throughout the test.

One passenger, Annie Stoll, tweeted that her flight to Buffalo was due to leave JFK at 20:00 pm on Sunday. But repeatedly delayed for five hours before she was finally able to sit down.

But then, according to Stoll, an hour after the plane stood on the airfield, all passengers were asked to get off. According to her, the flight was delayed until 6 am, and then finally canceled around 7 am.

"I'm convinced @JetBlue has held everyone hostage at JFK long enough that they don't have to pay people for a hotel," Stoll tweeted. “There are families with babies, it’s so disorganized, we can’t leave, who knows where our luggage is!”

Videos on social media showas passengers comb through the rows of suitcases that ended up being tossed into the baggage terminal by JetBlue after the flight was cancelled.

JetBlue apologizes to passengers

On January 31, JetBlue apologized to customers for the delays, saying it often takes several days to recover from a severe winter storm.

"After this weekend's heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures, we are working to safely resume our flight schedule," the spokesman said. “We have made significant progress in accelerating operations in Boston, LaGuardia and Newark. At JFK, we started operations on January 29th as planned, but encountered a number of conditions that slowed things down.”

A spokesperson said JetBlue consolidated flights on Jan. 31 "to ease these restrictions and is working on rebooking customers."

“It usually takes several days to fully recover when a storm of this magnitude significantly impacts our two largest markets in New York and Boston, and our first priority remains to restart safely. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and we are working to deliver as quickly as possible,” the company said.

JFK effectively closed on January 29 when winter storm Kenan dropped over 30 cm of snow on parts of the Big Apple. As a result, about 76 percent of flights at the airport were cancelled.

“JetBlue has always struggled to recover from major weather events,” said aviation expert Rabinovich. “They canceled flights in advance [January 29] to avoid just such a situation. But when there is a shortage of crew to physically move planes across the ground, it all collapses.”