The popular Queens-based air carrier JetBlue caught a lotta media (social & mainstream) heat the last few days for its extended post-holiday operational lapses but at least the people running that airline were honest about why flights got scrapped left and right.

New federal rules on commercial pilot scheduling quietly went into effect the 4th of January. The updated regs were years in the making and more realistically address the very serious problem of pilot fatigue. What you saw at JetBlue and some of its competitors the last week was inexcusable bungling by those charged with coordinating pilot work assignments using the new, mandatory rules. JetBlue was the only airline to publicly and accurately take responsibility for their crew coordination breakdowns while the others (you know who they are) used weather events in Chicago and the Northeast to mask or cover their failures.

The disturbing facts uncovered by the NTSB investigation of the Feb. 2009 crash of Continental Connection flight 3407 near Buffalo finally gave airline safety advocates the momentum needed to overhaul FAA regulations on pilot scheduling and rest. The old rules had numerous gaps that inevitably allowed for the possibility of tired pilots on the flight deck. Study after study shows fatigue leads to increased risk of making a mistake no matter the profession or endeavor.

Despite significant resistance by the airline industry during the FAA’s open comment period used to formulate new rest rules, there were several important changes made to improve the likelihood airmen and women will now report for duty with a good night’s sleep under their belts. Perhaps most important among the changes is a rigid requirement that pilots have a minimum of ten hours away from the airplane between duty days. Rest periods previously did not fairly incorporate the time it took crew members to do things like clear immigration, reach the hotel and wait in line for a room key. Since those tasks aren’t consistently quantifiable down to the minute, the FAA decided to add two hours to the old eight-hour rule and make it a straight ten with the idea pilots could then count on a solid eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Since the FAA’s research on rest found disruption of one’s “circadian rhythm” via redeye flight duty was particularly hard on the body, it shortened max flight time and one’s duty period for those forced to work in the middle of the night. It also imposed new caps on weekly flying by those who passed through several time zones away from home base and/or those gone from their own bed for a long time.

The pushback by air carriers during creation of the new rules was borderline shameful. Airlines characterized the changes as “unduly burdensome” to which the FAA responded at the time: “Air carriers currently utilize schedules that are unrealistically optimistic and do not include sufficient buffers for unforeseen circumstances.” In other words, airlines were stretching pilot work days beyond the reasonable and had to be reined in through government imposition of additional spacing between pilot quitting time and starting time.

Airlines had a full two years to prepare for adherence to the new regs. They’ll need more pilots and they’ll need to update the complex software and computer code that shapes the models and programs used by crew planners and coordinators to properly staff a flight schedule.

The inclement weather in Chicago and New York just as the new rules were set to go in place complicated the compliance transition to be sure but it was shocking to see how badly and how quickly air travel in this country turned upside down. Crew planners in the headquarters of at least one major carrier in addition to JetBlue somehow lost track of basic assignment functions and pilot availability data and became overwhelmed to the point pilots couldn’t contact the crew coordination staff by telephone.

Worse was the chaos at some of the so-called “express” or “regional” carriers (outsourced operators) who are even more constrained by the new rules given added rest allowances for crews assigned to fly numerous short hops during a duty day. Add to that a less sophisticated and more overworked assemblage of crew coordinators at the typical express carrier nerve center and any airline passenger would be well served at least in the short term by ducking flights operated by third party vendors.

Perhaps the most important measurement of an airline’s success (from perspectives both inside and out) comes when it attempts to recover from disruptions to its schedule. What we saw the last week was distressing. Airlines lost their grip on both the whereabouts and availability of pilots because they didn’t properly prepare for rules that were put on the books two years ago. It was a real mess for a lot of stranded travelers some of whom were forced to find alternative forms of transportation because the airplane option was simply too exasperating to bear.

While the airlines who find themselves short on pilots can’t hire them quick enough to avoid more meltdowns in the immediate next few months, at least they can be up front about their problems. They can also bolster the logistical side of the equation to better organize and deploy the labor they do have in place.

-Is Jersey governor Chris Christie telling the truth when he says he didn’t play any kind of role in the political payback scheme to jam up Fort Lee? I don’t know. But if he isn’t, he’ll eventually go down big because too many publicly exposed underlings and associates are getting ruined and somebody’s gonna squeal if C-C‘s claim of ignorance doesn‘t wash. The part of the story that has amazed me most since Buono made that bitter concession speech on election night is the number of elected Democratic Party officials in Jersey who broke ranks. Good political reporters with time and a nose will have a field day following those scents. No matter what happens, Christie lost his main sell to the national audience which was thought to be a special talent at breaking down the partisan divide and getting things done. Instead now he’s dubbed a bully which I’m not sure is the worst thing in the current political environment if it weren’t for the fact he’s chosen to insist he had zero to do with the traffic cones. He could have got up there today and owned the cones and perhaps survived. His problem comes if and when his story cracks. Then he’d be done.

-Sports media scribes in this town are saying MSG has the inside track at gaining television simulcast rights to Mike Francesa’s radio show but don’t be surprised to see it land elsewhere on the cable grid. Mike and the YES Network part ways at the end of the month. Mushnick, Raissman and Best all say MSG is the likely TV landing spot for Mike’s show however there’s another sports cable outlet in the mix. A decision is expected to be announced soon.