Neeleman Extends Contrition Tour

By and large, the airline industry seems to agree that JetBlue's operational mistake -- moving planes from the gate to the runway -- was understandable. However, the breakdown of its crew notification and reservations operations has raised questions.

Boyd sees an analogy with People Express, a 1980s low-cost carrier that tried to grow too fast. "When things went well, everything was fine, but you have one glitch in the system and everything shut down," he said.

At this point, JetBlue doesn't seem to have handled its problems as well as Frontier(FRNT Quote) did after a snowstorm shut down its single hub in Denver for 48 hours during Christmas week.

Frontier has said it too may have been too aggressive in sending planes out, causing crews and planes to be stranded in distant cities when the Denver airport reopened. Still, four days later Frontier operated a nearly full schedule.

Nevertheless, Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said he sympathizes with JetBlue. One reason, he said, is that most JetBlue crew members commute to the hub, making it difficult to maintain contact during the crisis. "If you know where your crews are, it's easier to get them matched up with flights," he said.

Additionally, all of JetBlue's 1,065 reservations agents work at home in the Salt Lake City area, and JetBlue couldn't get in touch when it needed to have them work extra hours. By contrast, Frontier maintains reservations centers in Denver and Las Cruces, N.M. Its agents, at least the ones who could get to work, were all in one place, ready to help out.

"We had some people set up air mattresses and sleep in the office," Hodas said. "Others stayed in hotels nearby."