Why can Americans build better airports?
By Patrick Smith Feb. 06, 2009 | It’s easy to like JetBlue Airways. We dig its youthful verve, its customer-friendly business model, its extra legroom and its odd knack for turning lousy luck into good publicity. (Who can forget the 2005 emergency landing of a JetBlue Airbus in California, a minor mishap that propelled Capt. Scott Burke to the status of national hero?) JetBlue finished first, some of you might recall, in this column’s best U.S. airline poll in 2004. On the other hand, if you ask me, its onboard product is overrated, its advertising campaigns are annoying (the ongoing “Jetters” ads are both grating and bizarre), and its planes have helped turn John F. Kennedy Airport into a nightmare of congestion. JetBlue operates only smaller jets — Airbus A320s and Embraer E190s — in a low-capacity, high-frequency combination that is a serious burden at Kennedy, where traffic is dominated by wide-bodied, long-haul flights. JFK is quiet during the morning and midday, then becomes in
