In an update on the local protests against bad service by Jetblue, the president of the Chamber of Deputies Alfredo Pacheco announced he would sue JetBlue for the symoblic sum of RD$1. He said the airline had called him to apologize.
JetBlue is apologizing while there is an increase in complaints by passengers regarding mistreatment and bad service by JetBlue counter agents in the Dominican Republic. JetBlue is the main air carrier to the United States, transporting around 250,000 travelers a month.
The airline attributes the delays and problems to the surge in demand for the peak summer months. The airline says they have had a record in passengers this season at a time when they are still overcoming operational challenges due to the pandemic and now war in Ukraine. The company says it continues to take steps to improve operations to bring back the JetBlue travel experience on which it had built its reputation.
The airline regretted the recent events that occurred on some flights, and apologized to users for the cancellation of operations, which it attributed to aircraft maintenance.
“On Saturday, 23 July 2022, JetBlue flight 1938, scheduled from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (SDQ) to San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU) was delayed two hours due to delayed aircraft arrival and lack of gate availability at Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo. The flight departed without incident and arrived in San Juan at 6:01 pm local time,” the airline reported. The following day, Sunday 24 July, flight 537 with service from SJU to SDQ was cancelled due to aircraft maintenance.
“Customers on this flight, whose information we had in the system, were notified by email and phone two hours prior to the flight’s departure. All customers were re-accommodated on other JetBlue flights in the next few days,” states the airline.
The company specified that since last year they have taken some measures to improve their services, such as strengthening communication with customers during irregular operations so that they can receive frequent notifications, including announcements at the boarding gates every 15 minutes.
Also, according to the airline, they continue to hire new crew members, adding staff to assist customers.
On Monday, 25 July 2022, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, said that he will ask “in writing” that the Dominican government cancel the operating license of the US airline JetBlue for the alleged mistreatment it offers to Dominicans on its routes to and from the country.
Dominicans are not the exception in getting bad service from JetBlue. A report in CNBC states that JetBlue service is also failing in the United States in general. An airline study by the Wall Street Journal released in January 2022 revealed the airline was affected by “brutal, hours-long delays and frustrating cancellations throughout 2021”. As reported, the Long Island City, New York-based airline dropped to the lowest spot on The Wall Street Journal’s annual ranking of US airlines, falling behind both Spirit and Frontier. American Airlines tied with Frontier for third-to-last. Delta Air Lines claimed the top spot on the list, followed by Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
Travelers today should allow for lots of delay time and expect to have to change plans.
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El Dia
Hoy
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Noticias SIN
The Wall Street Journal
CNBC
28 July 2022