According to a study conducted by the Atmosphere Research Group at least 20% of US travelers said they would definitely avoid boarding the Max 8 planes in the first six months once the flights resume and more than 40% said they would want to take the more expensive alternate flights or less convenient flights to avoid travelling on the unsafe Max 8 planes. Henry Harteveldt, President of the Atmosphere Research Group led the study and a report of the research was released Tuesday.
In the report released Tuesday (June 4th) Harteveldt says “Travelers aren’t merely scared of the 737 Max, they’re terrified of it. He further adds “The 737 Max is, for now, an ‘airplane non grata’ – a plane passengers do not want to fly.”
In a separate survey conducted by UBS Group AG, the findings suggest that 70% would hesitate to book a flight ticket today on Boeing’s grounded 737 Max 8 plane.
Both the surveys suggest that the Chicago based plane-maker wasn’t able to regain enough trust in the minds of the US travelers as a majority of them are unwilling to board the plane in the first six months once the Max 8 planes resume operations.
It has been almost three months since the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes have been grounded in the US by the US FAA after two fatal crashes of the Max 8 model involving Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines due to the MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) problem of Boeing’s Max 8 planes. Boeing claims that it has a fix for the MCAS malfunction and has also proposed to give pilot training to educate the pilots about the new fix.
All participants have traveled at least one round trip on the grounded MAX 8 planes in the last 12 months and the questionnaire contained 38 questions to arrive at the results and they were selected on a random basis by a third party US firm.
Meanwhile Boeing’s Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg declined to comment on the Atmosphere and UBS Group AG reports but he is reported to have made this general statement “We’ll do everything possible to earn and re-earn that trust and confidence from the airline customers and the flying public in the weeks and months ahead.”
