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U.S. airlines are realigning their schedules in order to minimize the impact of flying without their Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
“Our operators are accustomed to making frequent, large changes within our schedule and designed customized technology to assist with routing modifications,” Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King wrote in an email Monday. “We are working diligently to re-accommodate customers while navigating the reduced fleet availability and are experiencing an average of 150 cancellations a day as a result of the grounded aircraft.”
Southwest has 34 MAX aircraft in its fleet.
American, which operated approximately 85 flights per day with MAX planes prior to their grounding by the FAA last Wednesday, makes a similar point on its website.
“American has re-routed aircraft throughout our network,” the company says. “For example, a flight that was not scheduled as a MAX 8 flight might be canceled to enable our team to cover a MAX 8 route with a different aircraft.”
An American spokesman didn’t say how many cancellations it has had in recent days due to the grounding, but over the past three days the carrier has cancelled a total of approximately 100 flights each day, according to Flight Aware.
By comparison, Delta, which doesn’t have MAX in its fleet, had just two cancellations for the day as of late Monday afternoon.
United, which was operating approximately 40 daily MAX flights, said that it has not had to cancel a flight due to the grounding since Friday.
“United’s large and diverse fleet enables us to respond quickly and protect customers. We keep some aircraft type available to address irregular operations or maintenance issues,” spokeswoman Erin Benson Scharra wrote in an email.
According to investment analyst Hunter Keay of Wolfe Research, United has filled in the gap left by the MAX grounding for flight operations through April, but the carrier is still working to fill in the fleet gap for May and early June, when it typically flies approximately 6% more seats than in April.
“We believe the UAL wants to fly its schedule and is working as best it can,” Keay wrote in an investment note Monday.
Source: travelweekly.com
