Jetblue: Ice Problems
JETBLUE
INTRODUCTION
JetBlue was founded in 1998, by 38-year-old David Neelman as an upstart low-fare airline which had enjoyed unprecedented acclaim from costumers and industry observers. Unfortunately, on February 14, 2007 the enterprise, suffered one of the most severe service disruptions ever. Something that started as a controllable situation caused by a snow storm, turned into a nightmare for most of the passengers in the JFK International Airport in New York. and then, the nightmare expanded to the offices of the JetBlue Corporation. JetBlue was an airline which worked under one policy “Bring humanity on air travel”, so that day, they tried to continue with that statement, so even though the storm was incredible strong, they put the passengers in the aircrafts, and started their way to the take-off. The problem started, when there was an advice, that no aircraft has been allowed, not just to take-off, it wasn’t allowed to move because there were icy runways and passengers stayed trapped for up to 10 hours. This problem caused JetBlue to spend more than $26 million on passenger refunds and more than $4 million on employee overtime and other storm related themes. The problem affected more than 130,000 travelers because 1,900 flights were cancelled. JetBlue was a distinguished airline because all the services they offered, DirectTV-on-flight, Dunkin Donuts coffee, Bliss Spa kits and other co-branded amenities that make them one of the most chosen airlines to use by all type of travelers, but the incident dropped the airline’s stock and by consequence, was “kicked” out of the people’s choice, and the problem is that when a problem with a customer has that size and that importance, it’s difficult to regain their trust, and preference. CHALLENGES David Neelman was extremely intelligent at the time he settled this business down, he knew that more than 100 airlines had been launched since the industry was deregulated in 1978, but he found
INTRODUCTION
JetBlue was founded in 1998, by 38-year-old David Neelman as an upstart low-fare airline which had enjoyed unprecedented acclaim from costumers and industry observers. Unfortunately, on February 14, 2007 the enterprise, suffered one of the most severe service disruptions ever. Something that started as a controllable situation caused by a snow storm, turned into a nightmare for most of the passengers in the JFK International Airport in New York. and then, the nightmare expanded to the offices of the JetBlue Corporation. JetBlue was an airline which worked under one policy “Bring humanity on air travel”, so that day, they tried to continue with that statement, so even though the storm was incredible strong, they put the passengers in the aircrafts, and started their way to the take-off. The problem started, when there was an advice, that no aircraft has been allowed, not just to take-off, it wasn’t allowed to move because there were icy runways and passengers stayed trapped for up to 10 hours. This problem caused JetBlue to spend more than $26 million on passenger refunds and more than $4 million on employee overtime and other storm related themes. The problem affected more than 130,000 travelers because 1,900 flights were cancelled. JetBlue was a distinguished airline because all the services they offered, DirectTV-on-flight, Dunkin Donuts coffee, Bliss Spa kits and other co-branded amenities that make them one of the most chosen airlines to use by all type of travelers, but the incident dropped the airline’s stock and by consequence, was “kicked” out of the people’s choice, and the problem is that when a problem with a customer has that size and that importance, it’s difficult to regain their trust, and preference. CHALLENGES David Neelman was extremely intelligent at the time he settled this business down, he knew that more than 100 airlines had been launched since the industry was deregulated in 1978, but he found