Membership Cites Disruptions, Lack of Scheduling Support, Inefficient Assignments, Disorganization

JetBlue's pilot base, working with the Air Line Pilots Association, unanimously voted against current head of Airports and System Operations, Alex Battaglia. 

The vote of "no confidence" comes on the tail end of a long period of disruption and trouble at the carrier that brought customer and employee dissatisfaction to the brink. Battaglia was installed as Operations head in August 2021, and since then, JetBlue pilot leadership says, "JetBlue’s reputation among its customers has plummeted and the airline was recently named “the worst airline” by the Wall Street Journal’s annual ranking."

The carrier has weathered the same storm as others in the industry, but according to Chris Kenney, chair of the JetBlue unit at the ALPA, things stumbled harder than they did at other airlines. He describes a number of difficult issues, saying that "thousands of JetBlue pilots show up to work", only to see "operational disruptions at every level." He said they weren't the only ones suffering, adding "Customers are having their flights canceled, while pilots are spending hours on hold with the company just to find out if they have a bed to sleep in that night." 

JetBlue ALPA leadership issued the vote, and the ensuing resolution, saying that they “are consistently unable to reach Crew Services in a timely manner for purposes of managing their schedules, responding to disruptions, and irregular operations. Which has compounded and extended operational delays on countless occasions," in addition to a plethora of "time outs" for hitting their duty hour cap, bringing yet more delays and cancellations. The vote is hopefully the first step towards turning things around, said Kenney.

“Our airline’s reputation has suffered under the leadership of Battaglia. We are calling on our company to fix the problem and restore both the customers’ and pilots’ faith in JetBlue," he concluded.

FMI: www.alpa.org