Passengers face difficulties as airlines cut short flight numbers
The grounding of the Boeing 737 Max following two crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia has caused many airlines to cancel flights and consolidate routes into less profitable places. This has increased the load on airlines and the passengers are beginning to face difficulties in traveling through their regular routes.
Carriers across the world were forced to suddenly adjust to the circumstances after the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max airplanes, thereby canceling thousands of flights operating on different routes and also holding up the retiral of some of the older planes.
The impact of the grounding of the airplanes is starting to take a toll on the airlines and their passengers. The consequences are becoming more evident in terms of smaller profits for the airlines and more crowd on each plane. Many 737 Max reliant domestic and international airlines in the US are forced to cancel thousands of flights while rescheduling many more.
Airlines have reduced the number of routes they serve. 115 flights have been cancelled per day by the American Airlines which will potentially affect about 23,000 passengers on a daily basis.
The grounding has hit foreign carriers as well. Fly Dubai, a low-cost Middle East airline having flights to 95 destinations, has scratched 17% of its flying routine. European budget airline Ryanair warned of a layoff of employees on past Monday.
Due to a lot of cancellations, flights are becoming more and more crowded. Southwest, which flies the most number of 737 Maxes in the US said last week that the number of passengers per jet had surged higher during April, May, and June.
The flight cancellations are also impacting the airlines’ bottom line revenues. According to Southwest, the grounding reduced its Q2 profit by $175 million.
For now, it is unable to predict when the 737 Maxes will be back in operations. Although Boeing hopes to get the flights operational by October, the fate of the 737 Max remains in the hands of regulators.
Cited Article Sources:
http://investors.southwest.com/news-and-events/news-releases/2019/07-25-2019-114616974
https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-max-pain-spans-globe-hurting-carriers-profit-and-growth-11564306238?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1
