News Alert: U.S. Grounds Boeing 737 Max Flights
The U.S. Government has joined most other nations in grounding flights for Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft fleet, effective immediately. We are closely monitoring this situation but wanted to summarize some critical information for our users.
How long will the planes be grounded?
Details are still unfolding. It is unclear how long the planes will be out of service. The most up-to-date information can be found on the FAA website.
Which airlines are most impacted?
At this point, most major airlines and nations have grounded the 737 MAX. Within North America, the airlines that are most likely to be impacted are Southwest, Air Canada, and American Airlines. Here is a list of all airlines that have grounded the 737 MAX.
What is the extent of the impact?
Southwest has about 160 daily Max 8 flights, equal to 4 percent of its 4,000 daily flights. American has 90 Max 8 flights a day out of 6,700 flights, and United has 40 daily flights on the bigger Max 9, out of 4,700 daily flights. Southwest’s Max 8 flights are spread throughout the country. American’s Max 8 flights are concentrated into and out of Miami.
What happens if I am on a 737 MAX flight?
American Airlines has already started rebooking all affected passengers. For more information, please check American Airlines Travel Advisory.
Southwest Airlines is allowing flight changes through March 31st in the same fare class originally booked or the option to fly standby (within 14 days of their original date of travel) with no additional fees. For more information, please check Southwest Travel Advisory.
Air Canada is actively working to rebook affected passengers. Full fee waivers are in effect for cancellation and rebooking. For more information, please check Air Canada Travel Advisory.
United Airlines’ customers do not need to initiate cancellations and re-bookings as it is working actively to swap aircraft or automatically rebook affected passengers. For more information, please check this United Statement.
You can check your type of aircraft using this website.
Your travel safety is our top priority.
We understand this can be a stressful and uncertain time, and we are here to support you. TravelBank is actively monitoring our travelers’ flight itineraries for any schedule changes. Given the widespread impact across the travel ecosystem, there can be significant delays in confirming re-bookings with the airline carriers.