SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Some Northern California airports could see impacts after the United States announced a temporary grounding of Boeing 737 MAX air crafts.
The order comes after an Ethiopian Airliner crashed and resulted in the death of 157 people; it will take place immediately.
Northern California airports like Sacramento Municipal Airport and San Francisco International Airport told ABC10 there could be impacts to some customer flights.
SACRAMENTO
Update: An SMF spokesperson said that only Southwest Airlines used the impacted planes to fly in and out of their airport.
Original:
The airport is in conversation with the airlines to find out those impacts and whether any planes would be shuffled around. Even though the airport is having conversations with all three airlines, they could not confirm which airlines have the specific plane that has been grounded.
To get that information on those flights, the airport suggested that people call the airlines.
SAN FRANCISCO
At SFO, spokesperson Doug Yakel confirmed that 1.6 percent of their flight schedule would be impacted by the order.
“About 1.6 percent of our flight schedule is operated using Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, and thus will be affected by this order,” Yakel said in an email to ABC10. “Impact will depend on each airline, as some may be able to swap other aircraft to keep their flights operating.”
If customers want to verify their flight status, he suggested they call the airline.
A spokesperson for Sacramento International Airport said the situation is still dynamic, however, there could be some impact.
OAKLAND
Oakland International Airport spokesperson Keonnis Taylor sent this statement regarding the groundings to ABC10:
“Oakland International Airport is aware of the president’s order for the immediate cessation of US airlines’ operation of Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 airliners. All inquiries regarding this development or its impacts must be referred to the airlines.”
AIRLINE RESPONSE
Southwest
"Southwest operates a fleet of more than 750 Boeing 737s, and the 34 MAX 8 aircraft account for less than five percent of our daily flights," the airline said in a statement. "While we remain confident in the MAX 8 after completing more than 88,000 flight hours accrued over 41,000 flights, we support the actions of the FAA and other regulatory agencies and governments across the globe that have asked for further review of the data."
Click here to read the full statement.
American Airlines
"On average, American operates 85 flights per day on the MAX 8, out of 6,700 departures throughout the American Airlines system," the airline said in a statement, after writing that its fleet includes 24 MAX 8 aircraft. "American has flown more than 2.5 million passengers — during 46,400 operating hours encompassing nearly 18,000 flights — safely on our MAX 8 fleet since the first one was delivered Sept. 2017 and began commercial service later that November."
Click here to read the full statement.
United Airlines
Regarding the grounding of 737 MAX aircraft, United Airlines said they would be complying with the FAA order.
The airline is not anticipating a significant operational impact from the order but will work with customers to help minimize disruption to travel.
On Twitter, the airline said that customers would not need to cancel and rebook because the airline will swap aircraft or automatically rebook the customer. Their full statement can be viewed below: