JetBlue Delays Sparked by Glitch With Business Partner

JETBLUE-CANCELLATIONS

JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) was forced to delay dozens of flights across the country on Friday, an incident caused by a glitch with Verizon (NYSE:VZ), a person familiar with the matter told FOX Business.

Verizon didn't respond to multiple requests for comment regarding the allegation, while JetBlue pushed back on the report, indicating Verizon was not involved.

JetBlue earlier in the day blamed the hiccup on an "IT system outage," simply reporting "connectivity issues." The discount carrier said the issue was mostly resolved by 10:30 a.m. ET, though it warned passengers of residual delays.

"We worked closely with our business partner to resolve the issue and the system was up and running within a few hours," a spokesperson told FOX Business.

Overall, about 60 flights were affected, less than 10% of the total 700 flights the carrier operates daily. However, flight tracker FlightAware said it recorded 70 flights that were delayed for more than an hour, 222 that were delayed more than 15 minutes.

Glitches like the one JetBlue experienced have been behind a number of delays and cancellations for other carriers in the past. In April, American Airlines had to cancel hundreds of flights due to a system outage in its reservations and booking tool that lasted five hours.

Shares of JetBlue closed up about 2% despite the glitch.