JetBlue Founder is ‘Humiliated and Mortified’

Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 02.19.07 | 1:57 PM ET

What’s the airline executive equivalent of the celebrity apology/mea culpa/trip to rehab after committing a major faux pas? Witness JetBlue chief executive David Neeleman attempt to regain his airline’s A-list reputation after a disastrous week of flight cancellations and stranded passengers—or hostages, depending on your perspective. On Sunday, he told the International Herald Tribune he was “humiliated and mortified” by the airline’s problems. He blamed the troubles on faulty communications and reservations systems. And he vowed to reveal a plan on Tuesday for the airline’s full recovery. We like it. Good luck, Mr. Neeleman. But you know, you had us at “humiliated.”

For the record, how bad did it get out there on JetBlue planes?

“At the peak of the JetBlue problem,” the New York Times reported in a slightly different version of the same IHT story, “nine airplanes full of angry passengers sat for six hours or more on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.”

Yikes.