Airlines Look to Avoid Snow Job

But instead of 31 degrees, the Friday temperature was 33 degrees. There was no ice storm. "We didn't even get that much rain," he said. "We (in operations) looked out the window at an empty airport and we thought, 'You know what? We just lost our jobs.' "

But the impact of the wrong guess turned out to be far less than Holtz initially imagined. Given time to deal with Delta's decisions, passengers had made other arrangements. Some arrived in Atlanta early, some drove, some flew to nearby airports, and some flew on other carriers. As a result, Holtz said, "there was no impact to speak of, no bad press, and nobody at the gates pounding on the desks."

That was the moment of realization for Delta, he said: Early cancellations enable passengers to make acceptable decisions. Late ones force them into airport lines.

Reported by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.

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