Planes In Place, Pilots Rested... Someone Check The Weather...

It appears to be almost over. After a frustrating and embarassing crippling of its fleet, low-cost carrier JetBlue hopes the bugs are now worked out... and the airline can resume normal operations Tuesday, six days after a snowstorm led to a domino-like shutdown.

Tensions among travellers -- and harried workers -- appeared to be easing Monday at JetBlue's JFK hub, reports ABC News. That was despite a new round of flight cancellations, on top of weekend cancellations that affected 23 percent of JetBlue's schedule.

In an interview with The New York Times, JetBlue founder and CEO David Neeleman said he was "humiliated and mortified" by the breakdown, which he blamed on a combination of bad weather, communications problems, and an overtaxed reservations system.

The cancellations also resulted in many of JetBlue's 11,000 pilots and flight attendants stuck in locations far away from where they were needed, requiring an untold number of repositioning flights -- which, in turn, bumped into FAA regulations governing maximum flight time for pilots between breaks.

As Aero-News reported, the airline had hoped to have its problems resolved Monday. But while the planes were in place, White said, the pilots needed rest.

Air Travelers Association president David Stempler told the Associated Press JetBlue's problems may have stemmed from its desire to help passengers, despite the wintry weather.

"Most airlines don't try to operate when there is an ice storm problem they've learned that it's better to cancel all flights at the outset and then try to get back to normal operations as quickly as possible," Stempler said.

"JetBlue tried to do their best tried to keep the system rolling," he added. "Their heart was in the right place, but their head was not."

FMI: www.jetblue.com