Where's a Mike Sitrick or a Mike Paul when you need one? JetBlue is in the market for a crisis management PR maestro to help resuscitate its image. The former media darling and god send to air travelers is now famous for imprisoning passengers on the runway and allegedly forcing a flier to spend a good chunk of his flight seated in the plane's lavatory. And then there's JetBlue's decision to get rid of the free headsets, and you've got all the makings for a PR nightmare. (Not to mention the airline's schlocky new ad campaign.)

So now JetBlue chief David Neeleman Dave Barger is shopping around for someone to re-color his brand's black eye. Except there's on itsy bitsy little problem, and it's one that the average commuter might be familiar with.

Rising oil prices are having a huge impact on JetBlue's bottom line, and thus will determine the amount of cash it can afford to hand out to a PR firm.

But there's one potential problem. Ms. Dervin said the price of oil will be a determining factor in choosing an agency; if it continues to rise, the likelihood of hiring one will decline sharply. She said this creates a Catch 22 because communicating the effect rising oil prices have on the airline is something an agency could assist in.

"The rising price of oil is adding enormous cost pressure on every department within the company," she said. "We believe [hiring an agency] is the right thing to do, however, we also have to protect our cash balance and the bottom line." [AdAge]

[Photo: ViewImages]