JetBlue canceled 215 flights today because of a winter storm on the East Coast, aiming to avoid the days of cancellations and criticism that followed a storm last month, an airline spokesman said. The cancellations affected about one-third of all JetBlue flights. More than 200 of them involved flights to or from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, said company spokesman Sebastian White. He said a few flights also were affected at New York's LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, and Boston's Logan International Airport. In addition, the airline had canceled 15 flights Thursday night, White said. The storm is expected to dump more than a foot of snow on parts of the Northeast. Other airlines also reported cancellations, on a smaller scale. American Airlines had canceled about 120 flights to or from New York and other Northeastern airports as of Friday morning, said spokeswoman Sonja Whitemon. Northwest Airlines had canceled about 35 flights to or from the East Coast, all but a handful of them at Kennedy and the New York City area's two other major airports, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International, spokeswoman Tracy Carlson said. JetBlue has been under pressure to do better in bad weather since passengers were stranded in planes at Kennedy for up to 10 1/2 hours during a storm last month. JetBlue was unable to resume normal operations for days afterward because flight crews weren't where they were supposed to be. -- SPA
