How Airlines Managed Through the Blizzard

Delta and other carriers were far more likely to pre-cancel flights, which minimizes problems, but it's tough to manage through a blizzard.
By Ted Reed ,

ATLANTA (

TheStreet

) -- Nobody thinks the airlines perfectly managed their response after a winter snowstorm shut down New York airports earlier this week, but it seems clear that improved weather practices kept the situation from being far worse.

Because they are far more likely to pre-cancel flights when a weather crisis approaches, airlines manage weather problems

far much more efficiently today than they did a decade ago.

Additionally, the Internet provides a tool to keep passengers informed in a timely manner and, in some cases, to enable passengers to change travel plans without having to wait on reservations telephone lines, which can be maddening.

In the past, the mindset was that as bad weather approached, airlines would try to operate up until the last minute, trying to get passengers to their destinations -- even if it was likely the effort would vastly inconvenience many of them when flights were unable to depart.

This time, "we proactively cancelled in advance as the storm passed through Atlanta and moved up the East Coast," said

Delta

(DAL) - Get Report

spokesman Anthony Black. Delta cancelled about 3,030 flights from Saturday through Wednesday. The carrier operates about 5,500 daily flights.

Black noted that as a result of the cancellations, only a few hundred passengers endured extended waits in the Atlanta airport. "On some days, we had to cancel 10% to 15% of our flights during the day because the severity of the storm increased or because of anomalies such as inability to keep airport operations at the level we expected," he said.

All told, U.S. carriers cancelled about 9,000 flights. Among them were

US Airways

(LCC)

, which cancelled about 1,850 flights on Dec. 26 and 27. The carrier normally operates 3,200 daily flights. "We're getting back to normal and things here at the terminal in Charlotte are pretty quiet," spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said late Wednesday. Also,

JetBlue

(JBLU) - Get Report

cancelled 1,428 flights.

Among carriers with fewer flights in the Northeast,

American

(AMR)

, cancelled about 600 flights due to weather this week.

Southwest

(LUV) - Get Report

cancelled 736.

United

(UAL) - Get Report

cancelled 430, and spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said that to accommodate stranded passengers the carrier has used bigger aircraft on some New York trips, including a 747 between Kennedy and Los Angeles International airports and 777s on some trips from Kennedy to Chicago and San Francisco.

Some passengers journeyed to airports when they should have stayed home and checked with the airline to see if their flight had been cancelled, one airline employee complained. However, others were simply victimized by the combination of large numbers of cancelled flights, resulting primarily from closed runways, and from insufficient numbers of airport agents, partially as a result of limited airport counter space.

New York's

Daily News

reported that one trio of travelers arrived in New York Sunday for a connecting flight to Cleveland after taking a cruise in the Bahamas. The three travelers were stranded for 72 hours despite checking for flights at all three major area airports. They endured nine cancelled flights, slept at all three airports, and waited in one line for 11 hours. "I now know what it feels like to be homeless," Eszter Palinkas told the newspaper, adding "I fell asleep standing up."

Obviously, passengers who are in transit when a weather emergency occurs will not benefit from advisories to stay home. Perhaps airlines need to be even more proactive in preventing connecting passengers from flying into potential weather events.

At the same time, Air Transport Association spokesman David Castelveter suggested that the world needs to accept that airlines cannot control weather events. In a

Facebook

post on Wednesday, Castelveter wrote: "I hope someone else will remind the media that like the common cold, which makes you sick despite medical advances, winter weather causes flight delays and cancellations.

"Quit trying to place blame and face reality -- during weather, especially a blizzard, flights will not operate on schedule," Castelveter said. "Even Space Shuttle launches are delayed in bad weather."

Airline consultant Dave Swierenga, who heads AeroEcon in Round Rock, Texas, said the airlines faced problems they could not control. "It's really up to airports to get runways cleared," he said. "But that was extremely difficult in New York, where you have the busiest airports in the country and lots of snow and high winds -- keeping runways clear was difficult."

The carriers are not yet prepared to provide cost estimates for cancellations, so Swierenga's estimate of a $150 million pricetag has been widely reported. Swierenga said he based the estimate on 6,000 cancelled flights, each carrying about 150 passengers at about $300 each, which is the amount the airline would collect for a round-trip after taxes and airport fees are deducted.

"Then I said that about half the passengers would rebook, with no lost revenue, and I calculated that some lost revenue would be offset by reduced costs, principally fuel costs," Swierenga said. "This was a back-of-the-envelope, rough and ready estimate." The number of cancelled flights has increased since the calculation, while the percentage of cancellations could be lower, Swierenga acknowledged.

Avondale Partners analyst Bob McAdoo said he doesn't know the industry cost. "$150 million sounds high, but I don't have a better number," he said, adding "I don't think that half of the people cancelled" since a lot were completing Christmas trips. Others were starting vacations, perhaps to Florida or to ski resorts, and had the option to shorten or cancel those trips. McAdoo said savings from reduced expenses for fuel, landing fees and employee costs should help to reduce airline costs for the event.

Numbers should be available when airlines report fourth quarter earnings in January.

-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.

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Ted Reed

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