American Airlines Group and Southwest are bumping thousands of passengers off airplanes after their Boeing 737 MAX fleet’s was grounded in mid-March. The FAA reported Thursday that American denied seats to 69,924 passengers voluntarily in the first six months of 2019, up from 28,409 in the same period last year, while involuntarily denying boarding to 5,022 passengers, up from 678 in the same period last year. Southwest denied seats to 22,364 people voluntarily through June, compared with 10,364 in H1 2018, while it involuntarily denied boarding to 2,525, up from 1,045 in the first six months of 2018. The FAA noted the airlines told the agency “the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft has negatively impacted their involuntary denied boarding statistics.” American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein said the airline’s “biggest challenge in the operation continues to be out of service aircraft. This reduces our ability to start the day right and to swap aircraft when needed as the day goes on.” American has cancelled about 115 daily flights into early November because of the ongoing grounding. It has been substituting other aircraft for its busiest flights while canceling others and temporarily suspending direct flights between Oakland, California, and Dallas-Fort Worth. Southwest has removed the aircraft from its scheduling through Jan. 5, 2020.<br/>
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A Russian passenger jet flew into a flock of birds then crash-landed in a cornfield just outside a Moscow airport Thursday, according to Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency. The Ural Airlines Airbus A321 was carrying 226 passengers and a crew of seven from Moscow's Zhukovsky airport to Simferopol -- a city on the Crimean Peninsula -- when it ran into trouble. Shortly after takeoff, the plane "collided with a flock of gulls," according a statement from the agency. Some of the birds were sucked into its engines, it added. The emergency landing took place in a field less than a kilometre away from the airport's runway. Videos posted to social media show the passengers of flight U6178 evacuating from the plane and making a path through the field.<br/>In one video, a female passenger walking through the tall green stalks can be heard saying "second birth," noting that she was lucky to just be alive. Pilot Damir Yusupov, 41, and co-pilot Georgy Murzin, 23, were praised by the airline for their professionalism in difficult circumstances. "Precisely due to their professionalism, self-possession and coordinated actions (they) managed to land a plane without tragic consequences," a Ural Airlines statement said. Up to 55 passengers, including 17 children, have been given medical attention, Russian state news agency TASS reported. Six have been hospitalised, it said.<br/>
A plane that regularly carries US troops through Ireland's Shannon Airport caught fire shortly before it was due to take off on Thursday, forcing a five-hour suspension of flights at Shannon and cancellation of some trips. Shannon Airport temporarily suspended operations at 0537 GMT after the incident involving an Omni Air International Boeing 767-300 due to depart for the Middle East. All 145 passengers and 14 crew disembarked after emergency services were called. Air traffic controllers noticed a fire and smoke coming from the aircraft as it taxied along the runway after having to abort its take-off for technical reasons, according to Niall Maloney, operations director at Shannon Airport. "The problem with an aborted take-off is you can probably get things like hot brakes and when the aircraft went around again to come back on the apron, a flame was spotted," Maloney said. Omni Air International is a civilian airline that says it transports US and foreign military troops and military family members around the world.<br/>
Ryanair’s summer of simmering industrial strife is set to come to a head next week after the company’s Irish pilots said they’ll walk out on the same days as UK crews following the collapse of pay talks. The double-whammy threatens to shut down flights at bases including London Stansted, Europe’s biggest discount hub, in the run up to Britain’s August bank holiday -- traditionally the busiest weekend of the year for UK travel. CEO Michael O’Leary is grappling with a slew of pay disputes after recognising unions two years ago. Labour relations deteriorated further when he said hundreds of jobs must go and bases close to cope with a possible no-deal Brexit and slower growth after the grounding of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max. Story contains a rundown of the labour spats facing Ryanair across Ireland, Portugal, the UK, Spain and Austria.<br/>
Ryanair expects minimal cancellations with affected passengers flying out at different times if pilots in Britain and Ireland go ahead with a two-day strike next week, the airline's chief people officer said on Thursday. Ryanair staff unions in Ireland, Britain, Spain and Portugal have announced plans to strike in the coming weeks, a year after an initial wave of strikes over pay and conditions forced it to cancel hundreds of flights and hit its profits. Members of its British pilot union, which the airline said represents half of its pilots there, voted last week to stage a two-day strike from Aug. 22, when directly employed pilots in Ireland also plan a strike. Unionised Irish pilots represent less than half of Ryanair's pilots in its home market. "Our hope is that we're going to cover the majority of the operation both in the UK and Ireland, and unless you hear from us, your flight is going ahead as normal," Eddie Wilson told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding that planned action by Portuguese cabin crew next week would be minor. "We'll be protecting as a priority the summer destinations and there may be some cancellations on multi-frequency routes between Ireland, the UK or on UK domestics where people can make free changes, etc. There will not be travel chaos."<br/>
Canadian leisure airline Sunwing said Thursday it removed the Boeing 737 MAX jet from its network’s winter schedule through May 2020, the longest of any carrier yet, as the plane’s grounding drags on longer than the industry previously expected. Sunwing said that its winter schedule, which goes into effect on Nov. 5 and runs until mid-May, is being planned without the MAX to give passengers “much-needed reassurance” while planning their winter vacations. While Boeing has targeted October, the US FAA has not set a timeline for the ungrounding, and it is not yet clear when the 737 MAX will fly again. North American airlines have canceled thousands of flights and scrambled to secure additional capacity because of the grounding, with Southwest Airlines Co and Air Canada removing the MAX from their schedules until early January 2020. Other carriers, like American Airlines and Canada’s WestJet Airlines have removed the MAX from their schedules until November. “The worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft created operational difficulties for us during the summer months when we did not have additional capacity within our fleet to replace this aircraft type,” said Andrew Dawson, president of tour operations for Sunwing. “In order to maintain our customers’ vacation plans, it was necessary to contract flying with third-party carriers and make schedule changes or cancellations to over 3,000 flights.”<br/>
Southwest is expanding its service from California to Hawaii starting in mid-January. The airline announced that it's starting daily service between Sacramento International Airport and Honolulu. Southwest is also offering new nonstop service between the islands and airports in Oakland and San Jose. In total, the airline will be making 18 trips a day between the Aloha State and California. If you book on Thursday, flights start at $99 each way. Southwest is also offering new flights between the islands. Service will extend to Lihue Airport on Kauai and Hilo International Airport on the Big Island. Southwest announced its plans to fly to Hawaii in 2017 and began this March with service from Oakland to Honolulu.<br/>