American, Southwest bump more passengers after 737 MAX grounding

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/>