Remember the infamous ice storm that left thousands of JetBlue Airways passengers stranded at New York's Kennedy Airport last February? That and another winter storm cost the airline $41 million in lost revenue, turning what should have been a first-quarter profit into a $13-million operating loss.rnWhile JetBlue's case is extreme, bad weather is giving headaches to CFOs across the airline industry. The Air Transport Assn. estimates weather-related delays cost U.S. carriers more than $6 billion a year in lost productivity and fuel wasted by flying circuitous routes or sitting on the tarmac. The problem for carriers is that even the most sophisticated computerrnmodels can't predict whether a snowstorm will cripple air traffic in Chicago three months from now.
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