What happens when the sky is closed?

Date: August 27th, 2008
Author: Dale Moss

With a flash of lightening or crack of thunder, Mother Nature can literally close the skies to air travel. July 27 was such a day. Severe thunderstorms pummeled the New York City area and JFK Airport in particular. And you can imagine the hassle that ensued: congestion, flight delays, runway closures, cancellations, ugh!

I like to think that OpenSkies is full of creative problem solvers. And when circumstances are beyond our control, that’s when we truly shine. You may be asking,  how does an airline with only one aircraft handle disruption? It’s a good question, and one we knew we’d have to support. As part of the British Airways family, we have the resources and reach to handle most any situation on the spot.

For example, when those summer thunderstorms diverted our Paris-New York flight to Boston, the storms lingered over JFK long enough that the flight crew had to be relieved of duty by law. The flight was canceled, and that cancellation caused a domino effect of other cancellations. But that doesn’t mean our travelers were left stranded.

We were able to connect directly with our British Airways teams in Boston, London and Paris to provide all the assistance to our travelers to ensure they arrived at their destination safely, and as quickly as possible.

I like to think of us as a little airline with a lot of support, and that we can call on our BA colleagues when we need to. But that doesn’t happen very often. Our operational record is quite good. If a flight arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled time it’s within the industry standard. Since launch, we’ve been hitting this mark over 92% of the time. Even better, over 80% of our flights have arrived within 3 minutes.

You’ve heard me say that we’re dedicated to a great flying experience, but we’re also dedicated a reliable one.

Dale