The harsh weather throughout much of the country for the past week has caused JetBlue Airways Corp. to scratch more than 1000 of their flights and left some of their passengers stranded. It all began on Valentine's Day when a snowstorm moved through the Midwest and Northeast leaving hundreds of the airline's passengers aboard their planes for as long as ten hours as they waited. The largest incident was at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport where many passengers were extremely angry after being left on the tarmac because of icy weather. In all 250 of about 505 flights were canceled on Wednesday with 195 of about 568 canceled on Thursday all due to weather and crowded gates at JFK International Airport.. The icy weather could cost the airline an estimated $30 million in operating profit, according to CEO David Neeleman. It’s going to be very expensive,” he said. “I don’t have the final number, but it’s going to be maybe $20 million or $30 million and maybe a little bit higher.” The airline has since unveiled their “Customer Bill of Rights” for their passengers which states many things including the Company will remove passengers from aircraft that are delayed on the ground for five hours and also includes vouchers for passengers who have flight delays of over 30 minutes in the future. More flights were canceled on Monday, but Neeleman maintains no employees would be fired over the cancellations or delays. JetBlue shares fell 4.8% on Tuesday. Posted: 2/20/2007 4:09:48

On Wednesday AMR, the parent company of American Airlines (NYSE: AMR) announced that they have posted their first full-year profit since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. They also announced fourth quarter profits of $17 million, or seven cents per share, compared with a loss of $600 million, or $3.46 per share a year earlier. In other airline news, Southwest Airlines(NYSE: LUV)also announced Wednesday it also posted quarterly profits. The news was not all positive for Southwest however, fourth quarter profits fell close to 19 percent to $57 million, compared to a net income of $70 million a year earlier. The big rebound in 2006 from American Airlines is mostly being attributed to higher ticket prices and full planes. Lower fuel prices are also a factor with AMR saving $120 million in fuel costs from 2005. Despite quarterly profits from two of the industry's major companies, airline stocks fell 3.6 percent Wednesday. Posted: 1/17/2007 5:40:14 PM