Fliers hit rough winds as India grounds 737 MAX

35 Spicejet flights to be hit; Boeing suspends ops of entire fleet

NEWDELHI:AIR fares in India have shot up as a fresh round of cancellations on account of the ban on Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft on Wednesday added to a litany of problems besieging Indian airlines, whose per-day scrapped flight toll is now touching 150.

Late on Wednesday, Boeing put out a statement saying it has temporarily suspended operations of the entire fleet of 371 737 MAX aircraft. It said its action followed “consultation with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US National Transportation Safety Board, and aviation authorities and its customers around the world”.

Meanwhile, joining the long list of countries that have grounded the 737 MAX, President Donald Trump announced that the US was also grounding Boeing’s aircraft.

In India, ticket booking websites put the average jump in fares at 40-50%, with some sectors recording as much as a 100% spike in last-minute ticket prices. The trigger for the problem, which is expected to worsen as school holidays begin next month, was the grounding of 13 Spicejet Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the type involved in multiple fatal crashes.

“Tomorrow is going to be a real challenging day because today [Wednesday] the ban has come into effect only from the second

half of the day... Spicejet has assured us that they have taken up multiple plans. They have increased the utilisation of existing aircraft so that the cancellations get limited,” civil aviation secretary PS Kharola said.

Indigo, the country’s leading domestic airline by market share,

in mid-february announced it will be cancelling 30 flights a day till March 31 due to a shortage of pilots. Jet Airways, the second largest airline, is reeling from a liquidity crunch that forced it to ground 50 jets, which translate to at least 100 flights.