Dozens more JetBlue flights canceled in Boston as company faces staffing shortages

BOSTON — Rich Bonanno is one of many travelers frustrated with the continued delays and cancellations for JetBlue flights in and out of Logan Airport this weekend.

“It is frustrating because JetBlue has become my go-to airline between Raleigh and Boston, and they have fewer flights now, and there’s more delays,” said Bonanno.

He says his flight Friday night flight to Boston was delayed and then his Sunday night flight back home to Raleigh was cancelled.

“It was never clear what the reasoning was, whether it was crew,” said Bonanno. “It certainly didn’t seem to be weather or if it was some sort of tech issue, I’m not sure.”

A spokesperson with JetBlue sent the following statement Sunday:

“After a number of tough operating days this week that began with severe weather challenges and air traffic control delays up and down the east coast, we are continuing to work to minimize impacts to our customers. Despite hiring more than 3,000 new crewmembers already this year, like many businesses, we remain staffing constrained and these disruptions exacerbate an already challenging staffing situation.  In order to get our operation back on track this week and provide additional recovery options for the potential of additional April weather events, we are cancelling some flights this weekend and will be making a small schedule adjustment through the rest of the month.  We sincerely apologize to our customers for these disruptions, and we are working to cancel flights in advance whenever possible so they have time to adjust their plans and do not need to show up to the airport.

While we believe April will continue to be challenging, we are bringing on hundreds of new crewmembers each week as we prepare for summer travel. We have also reduced our schedule from May through the summer.  Given we anticipate continued industry challenges and heavy demand into the summer, we are planning more conservatively and trying to be proactive where we can with cancellations due to disruptive weather and air traffic control events.”

Bonanno says luckily, he was notified Saturday about his cancellation, so he was able to get on another earlier flight Sunday night to continue his trip home.

“It just worked out that I had the time to take a two-hour earlier flight, sometimes that happens and I can’t take a two hour earlier flight because I’m at work or doing something, today it just happened to work out that I could get on this flight, almost three hours early,” said Bonanno.

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