American Airlines Finds Travelers Not Avoiding the Boeing 737 Max as Many Feared
Photo Credit: An American Airlines Boeing 737 Max arriving at Washington Reagan National airport after its first flight there since 2019 on January 5, 2021. Skift / Edward Russell
Skift Take
Fears that U.S. travelers would go out of their way to avoid the Boeing 737 Max appear unfounded a week after the jet returned to U.S. skies. American Airlines is ramping up service, and other carriers are due to follow over the next two months.
The question of whether travelers would board a Boeing 737 Max again has plagued the planemaker and airlines since the jet was first grounded more than 21 months ago.
Did Boeing need to rebrand the plane? Was a confidence-boosting ad blitz needed once the jet returned? All were posed during the nearly two years that the aircraft was idled, its problems identified, fixed and ultimately re-certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in November.
The concerns were not unfounded. Numerous surveys found flyers weary of the jet whose systems were faulted in two crashes that took the lives of 346 people. In December, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll found that as many as 57 percent of respondents were not likely to fly on a Max again. And just over a month earlier, Southwest Airlines executives said that only a “minority of customers” were uncomfortable flying on the jet.
American Airlines put the question to the test when it returned the 737 Max to revenue service on December 2
