Check your flights: Cancellations grow following 737 MAX 9 grounding

09.01.2024 - 16:56 / thepointsguy.com

Flight cancellations continue to mount in the wake of Friday's emergency on board an Alaska Airlines jet, which saw passengers exposed to the elements more than 16,000 feet above the ground after an emergency exit-size door plug separated from the fuselage, causing rapid decompression on board.

Airlines have canceled hundreds of flights in recent days after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes like the aircraft involved in Friday's incident.

Alaska and United Airlines, the two U.S. carriers that fly the MAX 9, canceled a collective 388 flights by late afternoon Monday, according to data from FlightAware. That's after the two airlines canceled a total of 713 flights Saturday and Sunday.

As the National Transportation Safety Board works to pinpoint the exact cause of Friday's incident, it's still not clear when the disruptions might end.

Two U.S. airlines and several international carriers that fly to the U.S. currently have Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft in their fleets.

United leads the way: The Chicago-based carrier has 79 Boeing 737 MAX 9s in service. Prior to this weekend, United had 7,951 flights with the MAX 9 scheduled for this month, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Alaska, which has 65 Boeing 737 MAX 9s in service (and 25 on order), had more than 5,000 MAX 9 flights planned for this month.

Mexican flag carrier Aeromexico and Panama-based Copa Airlines also fly the jet.

Globally, there are currently 215 MAX 9s in service, Cirium reports.

With the FAA this weekend ordering inspections of all the Boeing 737 MAX 9s in service, airlines have had to ground the aircraft, triggering disruptions to flight schedules across the country.

"Just like with anything else that happens, it's going to have a snowball effect through the system," said Shem Malmquist, a longtime captain, flight safety and accident investigations expert. (Malmquist also currently serves as an instructor at Florida Institute of Technology's College of Aeronautics.)

"You can't just pull that many airplanes out of your fleet and not expect things to happen," Malmquist told TPG.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Alaska's home base, and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), a major United hub, have been among the most affected airports, FlightAware data shows.

Alaska warned this weekend that "significant cancellations" would be likely through the first half of this week. The airline's 154 cancellations Monday amounted to a fifth of Alaska's operation after disruptions Sunday affected roughly 25,000 passengers.

For its part, United reports it has parked each of its Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft and has been working to accommodate affected customers on other flights while, in some cases,