More Trouble for JetBlue

JetBlue planes were loaded and ready to depart at 7 a.m. on Feb. 14, Neeleman said, as the airline expected falling snow to turn to rain. "By the time we realized rain wasn't coming, everything froze," he said. Planes couldn't move due to frozen conditions and occupied gates. Nine JetBlue flights sat on the runway for more than five hours, he said.

Subsequently, failures occurred in airport staffing, reservations staffing and crew management. In response, Neeleman said, JetBlue's Web site has been upgraded to allow passengers on canceled flights to rebook. A few hundred Kennedy-area employees will be trained to help out in emergencies.

The crew-scheduling system is being upgraded so that it can identify crews with flight time remaining. Reservations agents, many of whom work at home in Salt Lake City, will be required to work extra hours in emergencies.

Neeleman, who has assumed the burden of apologizing publicly for JetBlue's mistakes, said that in a crisis, a company needs to explain what went wrong and why it won't happen again. "If you try and hide stuff, if you try and twist the truth, and try and spin it your way, you don't come across as credible," he said.