A group on behalf of some of the major airline companies in the United States of America stated on Tuesday (May 21) that USA’s summer air travel records are soon to reach a record high in spite of the grounding of the controversy-ridden 737 Max aircraft after two consecutive fatal crashes with Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines.
Airlines around the country are planning to add almost 111,000 seats daily to accommodate the extra 93,000 passengers expected each day, according to the same group. If the forecast is considered completely then it will be the 10th consecutive summer of a surge in the U.S. airline passenger headcount.
Southwest Airlines Co, as well as American Airlines Group Inc, have already canceled flights due to the grounding of the 737 MAX into August, on the other hand, United Airlines has canceled flights into early July.
Southwest’s count of canceled flights is about 160 daily through August 5. The airline launched service to Hawaii earlier this year but has had to postpone flying to the said destination from San Diego and Sacramento because of the MAX groundings.
Whereas, American Airlines has canceled as many as 115 flights daily until August 19. The number accounts for 2 percent of its summer flight capacity.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is meeting with aviation regulators from around the world in Texas on Thursday (May 23) to update them on the various reviews of the 737 MAX. Boeing has not yet formally submitted its software upgrade and training revisions to the FAA for approval or completed a certification flight.
