Commercial aviation was shaken this Saturday with the news of the [incident of depressurization suffered by an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9, which rapidly escalated into the decision by the United States Federal Aviation Administration to suspend all operations of the model in that country.
Following this measure by the FAA, Copa Airlines informed that 21 Boeing 737 MAX 9s from their fleet will be grounded until they undergo the required technical review. A spokesperson from Copa said Aviacionline that only 21 out of 29 aicraft «have the specifications susceptible to failure».
«Copa has initiated the required technical inspections and expects to return these aircraft to
the flight schedule safely and reliably within the next 24 hours,» they indicated through a press release.
«The human team at Copa Airlines is working to minimize the impact on our passengers, even though some delays and cancellations are expected due to this situation beyond the airline’s control,» they continued.
According to information obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium, Copa Airlines’ January schedule includes flights with the Boeing 737 MAX 9 from Panama to Aruba, Bogotá, Cali, Córdoba, Cancún, Curaçao, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Guatemala City, Guayaquil, Havana, Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Lima, Orlando, Medellín, Managua, Miami, Montevideo, Punta Cana, Rosario, San Salvador, San Pedro Sula, Santiago de Chile, Santo Domingo, San Francisco, San José-CR, Quito, Tegucigalpa-Palmerola, and Montreal. This totals 32 of the 80 destinations towards which Copa Airlines currently flies regularly.
«Copa Airlines will make its greatest efforts to timely inform and support passengers
affected by this situation. We recommend our passengers to check the status of their flight on copa.com or on the Copa Airlines mobile app,» concluded the Panamanian airline.
