Over at Alaska, all of the Max 9 flights—about 110 to 150 flights a day—have been canceled through Tuesday, January 16. The airline has implemented a systemwide flexible travel policy, meaning anyone with an original travel date through January 18 on a 737 Max 9 aircraft can reschedule their flight through January 24. Refunds will be offered if suitable alternatives can’t be found.
Passengers with upcoming flights aboard either airline should continue to check in with the carrier for the latest information.
Several international airlines also use the Boeing aircraft in their fleet, and despite not being subject to the FAA grounding unless they’re flying within the US, most have also responded to the incident in some manner. Copa Airlines, which had 2,603 scheduled flights this month per Cirium, has suspended 21 aircraft as of Saturday, and Aeromexico, which had 2,437 flights, tells Traveler that its 19 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes are in the “final phase of a detailed inspection” and should be back in operation “in the upcoming days.”
Turkish Airlines, which had 654 scheduled flights on the aircraft this month, decided to withdraw its five Boeing 737 Max 9 planes from operation for the time being, according to the airline’s spokesperson Yahya Üstün. As for Icelandair, which has 414 January flights scheduled on the model, a representatives tells Traveler that the carrier has been in contact with Boeing and FAA, but “it has been confirmed that the issue is with equipment that is not part of Icelandair’s Max 9 configuration and as a result, our Max 9s are not affected by FAA’s requirements of inspection.” A spokesperson for Flydubai, with 342 flights scheduled, also confirmed that its 3 aircraft “are not affected” since it operates those “with a deactivated mid-aft exit door configuration, which is not referenced in the directive.”
How long will the 737 Max 9s be grounded?
“At this point, it’s unclear how long the grounding will last,” Harteveldt says, explaining that the FAA, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and airlines all need to agree on the details of the inspection and required documentation.
“Every Boeing 737-9 Max with a plug door will remain grounded until the FAA finds each can safely return to operation,” the FAA said in a statement. “The safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning the Boeing 737-9 Max to service.”
Both United and Alaska have begun necessary safety checks of the planes. During initial inspections, a United spokesperson tells Traveler, they removed two rows of seats and sidewall liner to access each door plug. In doing so, they “found instances that appear to relate to installation issues of the door plug,” such as bolts that needed to be tightened. United’s Tech Ops team is working on fixing the issues, the spokesperson says, with a team of five technicians spending several hours on each aircraft. Alaska also issued a statement on Monday, January 8, that noted “initial reports from our technicians indicate some loose hardware was visible on some aircraft.”
