By Katie RessmeyerThe Daily Northwestern

JetBlue Airways’ founder and chief executive officer David Neeleman used to be Al Gore’s environmental foe.

“I was pretty happy with global warming before (Feb.) 14,” Neeleman joked.

In a speech Friday to about 600 people in Owen L. Coon Forum, Neeleman referred to an incident in which the airline left passengers stranded on board planes for up to 10 hours and canceled some 2,000 flights.

Neeleman, whose speech was sponsored by student groups’ the Transportation Society and the Icarus Society, an aviation interest group of the University’s Transportation Center, discussed the airline’s failures and the effect the recent groundings had on the company.

“It was a difficult time for me personally and professionally,” Neeleman said. “When you have to deal with a self-inflicted wound, that really hurts.”

Neeleman focused on what JetBlue has done since Feb. 14 to improve operations.

The week after the storm, JetBlue introduced a customer bill of rights, Neeleman said.

The new system was tested March 16 when another storm hit the New York area.

Communication junior Ali McKegney was one of the passengers affected by the March 16 cancellations.

McKegney was traveling to New York for Spring Break and was not able to get another flight until March 18.

McKegney said she called the reservations number four times before she was able to reschedule.

But Neeleman said reservations are one area the airline is focusing on, planning to improve the functionality of online scheduling.

“There are enough things in this business that we can’t control, we have to take care of what we can control,” Neeleman said. “(Customers are) not too happy if you are just smiling at them and don’t know what is going on.”

Only 11 airplanes were on the runway when JetBlue decided to cancel the March 16 flights, he said, as opposed to the 52 airplanes on Feb. 14. Neeleman said 95 percent of flights were on schedule the next day and 100 percent the day after that.

“Down deep in our core, we are a customer service company,” Neeleman said. “I don’t believe any of our competitors came close to what we did in the recovery.”

Airport and weather-related delays and cancellations can be prevented in the future with more runways and more airspace, Neeleman said.

Neeleman said current Congressional proposals will be unsuccessful, including one bill that would require a plane that has been on the runway for three hours to return to the gate.

“That will be the worst thing,” Neeleman said. “People want to go. They don’t want to go back to the gate.”

The solution to the problem is simple, said Neeleman, who also serves on a management advisory committee for the Federal Aviation Administration. Neeleman suggested charging airlines for the use of flight plans and using the money raised to pay for an improved air traffic control system.

But the problem will continue to get worse before that solution is sought, he said.

Reach Katie Ressmeyer at [email protected].