CHICAGO: Normally, US airlines compete to sell tickets and fill seats during the peak summer travel season. But operators of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX are facing a different problem: scarce planes and booming demand.
Southwest's decision will lead to 160 cancellations of some 4,200 daily flights between Jun 8 and Aug 5, while American's removal through Aug 19 means about 115 daily cancellations, or 1.5 per cent of its summer flying schedule each day. Boeing is under pressure to deliver an upgrade on software that is under scrutiny in both crashes and convince global regulators that the plane is safe to fly again, a process expected to take at least 90 days.
American was cancelling about 90 flights per day through early June, but runs more flights and has less fleet flexibility in the peak summer travel months.