As airlines ready their Boeing
737 Max aircraft for a long-awaited return to the skies, travel advisors
must decide whether to handle bookings on Max-operated flights
differently than they handle bookings for all other flights.
Plans at this early stage vary.
"We will deal with those differently," said Angela Hochhalter, air desk manager for Birmingham, Ala.-based Brownell Travel.
She
explained that Brownell won't book a flight on a Max before making sure
the client in question is comfortable flying on the now-infamous
aircraft.
But Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg, co-owner of New York-based Valerie Wilson
Travel, said she'll handle flights operated with Max planes like other
bookings.
"I never want to minimize the loss of lives from those two crashes,"
she said of the Max accidents in October 2018 and March 2019 that killed
346 people and resulted in a global grounding of the aircraft. "But I
have to put trust into our system that the FAA and other authorities
have tested and reviewed it and that the recertification has occurred."
The 737 Max is slated to return to commercial service in the U.S. skies on Dec. 29, when American Airlines will begin flying one of its 24 Max aircraft
between Miami and New York LaGuardia. United has said it will resume
operations with the aircraft during the first quarter of next year.
Southwest expects to begin bringing its 34 Max back into service in the
second quarter. Alaska will take delivery of its first Max plane in
January and plans a March service launch.