737 MAX tips

Boeing’s biggest customer is considering “alternative plans” for its future airplane requirements. 

Boeing announced a major shake-up of its senior leadership team.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby sought to reassure travelers that safety is the carrier’s highest priority following a series of mishaps with its Boeing jets.

Boeing’s nightmare start to the year is about to get even more challenging. 

American Airlines has announced a blockbuster new aircraft order, from not one but three different manufacturers.

The chief executive of Ryanair has said he is “very disappointed” with additional delays to deliveries of Boeing 737 Max jets. 

A shortage of aircraft could cause airfares to rise 10% in Europe this summer. The warning comes from Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who also said routes could also be cut as airlines grapple with capacity shortages. 

Alaska Airlines will temporarily ground its fleet of 65 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft after a cabin panel blowout forced a jetliner loaded with passengers to make an emergency landing on Friday, CEO Ben Minicucci said.

Boeing Co shares fell as much as 7% on Friday after the planemaker halted deliveries of some 737 MAX jets due to quality-related problems with certain components made by one of its main suppliers.

Boeing Co is working on a deal to sell at least 150 737 Max jetliners to Saudi Arabian startup Riyadh Air, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes that were taken out of service earlier this year following a pair of fatal crashes will not return to the skies in 2019. American, Southwest, and United have all removed the aircraft from their schedules until January 2020, meaning the aircraft will be grounded for at least 10 months before they take off again.

Update: September 27, 2019

In the three weeks since the FAA grounded Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft, we’ve learned a lot about the plane and what likely caused the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes. But we’re still waiting to hear when, exactly, Boeing will have a fix for the aircraft to return to the skies.

As reported yesterday, the U.S. has grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft until further notice. The move came after most major international regulatory bodies took similar action, notably in the Europe, the U.K., and Canada.

Two models of Boeing’s latest twin 737 MAX 8 jet have crashed in the last six months: An Ethiopian Airlines flight headed for Nairobi on March 8, and October’s Lion Air flight that crashed off Jakarta. Both flights went down shortly after takeoff, killing all onboard. Since Sunday’s crash over 25 airlines grounded their models of the plane. On Wednesday the Trump administration followed other governments, including those of Canada, China, Germany, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar, and the United Kingdom, in calling for the planes to be grounded and banned the aircraft from domestic airspace.

On Wednesday, the United States and Canada joined almost every other country and dozens of airlines in grounding Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 planes closely following the second deadly crash of the brand-new aircraft model in recent months. A tragic Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed everyone onboard Sunday followed the deadly October Lion Air crash the went down near Jakarta. Both planes went down without warning, just after takeoff, and in both crashes, all passengers and crew were killed.

If you can’t imagine flying again on the Boeing model that was grounded following two deadly crashes that killed all on board in a span of five months, you’re not alone. A poll by SmarterTravel’s sister site Airfarewatchdog recently found that 73 percent of respondents would not want to travel on the model. Our own survey of a smaller group found more of the same. So where do travelers go from here?