U.S. summer air travel will hit a new record this year despite the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft after two fatal crashes, a group representing major airlines said on Tuesday. Airlines for America, the trade group representing major U.S. carriers, said it expects 257.4 million passengers to travel on U.S. airlines between June 1 and Aug. 31, up 3.4 percent from last summer’s record 248.8 million passengers.
Airlines are adding 111,000 seats daily to accommodate the extra 93,000 passengers expected per day, the group said, in what it forecast will be the 10th consecutive summer of increases in the number of U.S. airline passengers. Southwest Airlines Co and American Airlines Group Inc have canceled flights because of the grounding of the 737 MAX into August, while United Airlines has canceled flights into early July.
