Boeing grounding expected to make summer air travel difficult

People looking to travel by air this summer should prepare themselves for potential delays or cancellations.

News 12 Staff

May 29, 2019, 11:53 PM

Updated 1,792 days ago

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People looking to travel by air this summer should prepare themselves for potential delays or cancellations.
Air carriers like United, Southwest and American warn that the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft is expected to have negative impacts on air travel. This as the summer travel season starts to really kick in.
“It seems like there are more people in Newark Airport then there were in the whole town of Fort Myers,” says Bill Viezel of West Orange who just returned from vacation.
The Boeing grounding happened after two deadly crashes within a few months. A software update which will fix the issue is expected this summer. In the meantime, delays are expected.
"My other son is going to Europe so he'll have to deal with it, but I think it's going to be challenging,” says Kathy Weissenberger of Glen Ridge.
A spokesperson for United Airlines says they expect to cancel approximately 35 to 40 flights a day in June and 40 to 45 flights in July. The grounding took 14 of their planes out of service.
The spokesperson said in a statement, “We have decided to pull Max flights out of our schedule through Aug. 3. During this period, we'll continue to take extraordinary steps to protect our customers' travel plans."
But travelers say that with more and more people traveling by air, they are not expecting a smooth transition.
"When we were getting off the plane they have to turn those planes around so quickly that as people are walking off, people are cleaning the aisles. It's just crazy,” Weissenberger says. “They can't do their jobs, people can't get off the plane but they’re under such pressure to stay on time to get the planes out."
Southwest Airlines will ground 34 of their Max planes through Aug. 5. American Airlines plans to keep Max aircrafts grounded through Aug. 19.
Officials say that another factor potentially affecting air travel is that agents from the Transportation Security Administration from across the country may be deployed to the U.S./Mexico border.


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