U.S. airlines face too many travelers, too few planes in 737 MAX summer dilemma

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

BUSINESS NEWS APRIL 14, 2019 / 10:23 AM / UPDATED 34 MINUTES AGO

U.S. airlines face too many travelers, too few planes in 737 MAX summer dilemma

Tracy Rucinski
5 MIN READ

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Normally, U.S. 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.

The grounding of Boeing Co’s fuel-efficient, single-aisle workhorse after two fatal crashes is biting into U.S. airlines’ Northern Hemisphere spring and summer schedules, threatening to disarm them in their seasonal war for profits.

“The revenue is right in front of them. They can see it, but they can’t meet it,” said Mike Trevino, spokesman for Southwest Airlines Pilots Association and an aviation industry veteran.

Southwest Airlines Co, the world’s largest MAX operator, and American Airlines Group Inc with 34 and 24 MAX jetliners respectively, have removed the aircraft from their flying schedules into August. United Airlines said on Monday it would remove its 14 MAX jets through early July.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-airplane-usa-airlines/u-s-airlines-face-too-many-travelers-too-few-planes-in-737-max-summer-dilemma-idUSKCN1RQ0G0

[msongs]

1. airlines will make up for it by raising fares. nt

[Sherman A1]

2. Those planes

need to go to the scrap yard.

[Girard442]

3. I think the planes could be fixed, but who would trust Boeing's current management to do it?

[Sherman A1]

4. With all the changes in the design

moving the engines and changing the Center of Gravity I do not believe that they can be made airworthy.

[customerserviceguy]

5. Pilots from the vast majority of the world's airlines

that had the Max were able to fly them without crashing them. When you sell a plane under the guise that "it flies itself" (without actually using those words) some of the world's most mediocre airlines will take that seriously, and put lightly trained pilots in the cockpit.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of takeoffs and landings per day throughout the world, and not just First World airlines tell you that the aircraft was not the death trap that Indonesia and Ethiopia make them out to be.

[Sherman A1]

6. I understand that there were many complaints from

US pilots as well. The aircraft is a very old design with a significant change to the center of gravity (CG) for fuel efficiency. To compensate for that the autopilot system was "re-engineered" to adjust for the CG changes.

As to it being a death trap or not will be decided by others than us, however I suspect the families of those who were lost onboard those two aircraft might believe that it is just that.

The 737-8 Max needs to be scrapped and my opinion will not change on this subject.

[Girard442]

9. My gut feeling is that the modified aircraft with a properly implemented MCAS would OK.

I could be wrong.

The even larger problem is that Boeing managed to put a plane into service with the MCAS being the smelly piece of garbage it is. What are the chances that MCAS is the only thing that stinks on the MAX 8?

[Sherman A1]

11. I still believe the problem to be the design

The MCAS is an effort to fix a flawed design characteristic. An airliner should first and foremost be inherently stable and without a tendency to pitch up or down.

[Girard442]

8. It shouldn't require exceptional flying skills to keep a plane from plunging into the ground...

...in a normal, uncomplicated flight situation.

[customerserviceguy]

10. And if everything always went 100% right

then Homer Simpson could run a nuclear power plant.

Where a pilot's experience comes into play is in the unusual circumstances. When you've been in an aircraft a number of times when making the wrong decision could easily result in your own death, and you've made the correct decisions, a computer malfunction should be a problem that you can handle without panic.

That doesn't happen with only 200 flight hours.

[Girard442]

12. The Brits have a saying...

"The exceptional pilot uses his exceptional judgement to avoid situations that will require his exceptional skills." I'd like to imagine airlines put exceptional pilots into their aircraft, but select aircraft that only very rarely need exceptional skills to operate safely.

[customerserviceguy]

13. That's a good saying

And, it is clear that even very experienced pilots have encountered situations with this aircraft that have called upon their considerable skill sets. Clearly, a fix is needed, but just junking billions of dollars worth of aircraft is probably not the answer.

Hopefully, the FAA and other worldwide flight regulation authorities will look at this situation, and call for recertification of aircraft that have changes of the magnitude done with the Max. Perhaps better oversight of training is a part of the solution for the future, as well.

[47of74]

7. I just got an email from American saying they were grounding their MAX 8s until August

I wrote the DBQ airport manager to find out if American or other airlines had designs on using 737s at DBQ. He told me Sun Country already has 737s flying in and out of Dubuque for charters, and the airport's new terminal was designed around the 737.

American mainly uses the Embrarer ERJ-145 here. It doesn't look like American would have 737s flying here. Wouldn't make much sense to just fly the180 miles to Chicago in them with the passenger counts we've got. The manager did say American might go up to the 175 for the local airport in the near future.