Not cleared for takeoff.

• Author: Ehrenreich, Barbara
• Position: Flip Side

The lucky JetBlue passengers were the ones whose flights were canceled in February. They were fortunate enough to remain stranded in well-heated airports with restrooms and food courts. As for the unlucky ones, hundreds of them were trapped for as many as ten hours in planes on the tarmac, with overflowing toilets, dwindling supplies of drinking water, and no food when the pretzels ran out. So far there have been no reports of cannibalism aboard immobilized JetBlue flights, but, with the company's post-ice storm PR campaign in full swing, who knows?

I could do ten hours on the tarmac, provided I had a sufficient supply of Xanax and protein bars. But with children? JetBlue's CEO David Neeleman has nine of them. Would he dare risk a family vacation in the Caribbean if any of them are in the challenging zeroto-ten age range? According to CNN, parents on stranded planes were ripping up T-shirts to make diapers for their babies. And how many times can you read Curious George out loud anyway?

Neeleman has admitted to being "humiliated and mortified" by his company's post-storm meltdown (one might wish that his status included "fired"). But JetBlue's out break of passenger abuse reflects larger problems in corporate America. One is a premium on youth at the expense of experience. Youth is part of JetBlue's branding, even if it means having no one around who's ever seen snow. According to Aero News, this may have had something to do with the company's decision, shortly after the storm, to push planes off to the tarmac rather than canceling flights, as the older airlines did. JetBlue's approach certainly succeeded in clearing some boarding areas of noisy, disgruntled passengers, but a stun gun might have been more humane.

The other widespread problem is a simple shortage of employees. Since the late '80s, corporate America has pursued the beautiful dream of an employee-free company. Imagine: No payroll except for the top executives, no benefits to provide, and, of course, no unions!

Since 9/11, the airlines in particular have been shedding employees...