Travel firms modify search options after Boeing woes

bengaluru — Travel agents and websites have begun to respond to consumer concern and the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes, by changing policies and introducing options to allow customers to choose the type of aircraft they wish to fly on.

Kayak.com, part of the Booking.com stable, was the first big travel search website to say it would modify search filters to allow customers to exclude particular types of planes from queries.

Several travel agents said they were dealing with the cancellation of flights due to the grounding of nearly two-thirds of the Boeing 737 MAX planes in most countries outside North America, prompting a wave of re-bookings.

Carlson Wagonlit Travel, which manages travel for big global businesses, said some clients wished to explore the possibility of temporarily restricting travel on Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes.

The changes come after a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in Ethiopia on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board and causing regulators across the world to suspend or ground the planes.

Anxious travelers took to social media to air their concerns and checked with travel agents to see if they were booked on these aircraft.

“We’ve recently received feedback to make Kayak’s filters more granular in order to exclude particular aircraft models from search queries,” a spokeswoman for the website told Reuters in an email responding to questions.

“We are releasing that enhancement this week and are committed to providing our customers with all the information they need to travel with confidence.”

US travel firm Expedia, Germany’s Trivago and Indian online travel agents MakeMyTrip and Yatra did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the impact the crash is having on bookings.

Temporary bouts of nerves among travelers are a familiar part of the reaction to major plane crashes, and agents booking travel for major executives have remained cautious about making immediate changes to booking systems.

Norwegian travel agent BergHansen, dealing with cancellations of flights on Norwegian Air’s 737 MAX planes, said clients were mainly concerned with whether their flights were still scheduled to fly and the need to re-book if so.

“We have increased our staff from last night, through the night and now,” Berg-Hansen chief executive officer Per-Arne Villadsen said.