Add'l info about airlines last Saturday:

[babylonsister]

The gov. of NOLA may have used too broad a brush to condemn all the airlines;

WSJ article blasts DL for stranding MSY customers

An article in Friday's edition of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) looked at the airlines that departed from MSY the day before Hurricane Katrina hit and asked "Where was Delta?"

On Saturday, Delta Air Lines (DL) canceled all of its flights scheduled the Sunday before Katrina made landfall; however, other airlines, including CO, kept flying as long as the weather would permit. DL said its decision to cancel its Sunday schedule was based on the safety of its customers. "As it turns out," the article said, "conditions were OK to operate well into Sunday.

The Sunday before Katrina slammed into the central Gulf Coast, American Airlines operated a full schedule until 1 p.m. CO's last flight departed MSY at 4:30 p.m.; CO flew 10 of its 12 scheduled flights that day. Southwest's latest flight was set to depart at 3 p.m. but was delayed until 6 p.m.

"The contrast between what American, Continental and Southwest did Sunday and what Delta did is startling," the article said. "Airlines have to be safe, but they also have to be mindful of their obligation as public transportation. In this case, they were the lifeboat for many customers, and some of the lifeboats didn't show up."