This year’s peak holiday travel season—from Thanksgiving through Christmas—might just be messier than usual. That’s because of the additional delays to the return of the Boeing 737 Max, which U.S. airlines were predicting to return in early November, and a scramble for carriers to reroute and rebook passengers on impacted flights.

Two major domestic airlines recently pushed the Boeing 737 Max off their schedules even further: American Airlines announced it will push the 737 Max off its schedule until December 3, and United Airlines says the aircraft now will not return to operations until December 19.

For American, this means about 140 canceled flights each day, while United says roughly 2,800 flights will be canceled in the month of November and about 1,700 from December 1 to 19. All Boeing 737 Max planes have been grounded worldwide since March, after 346 people were killed during two fatal Max plane crashes, on Indonesia’s Lion Air in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019.

Link: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/as-the-boeing-737-max-stays-grounded-holiday-travel-may-get-more-expensive

Norwegian Air Shuttle is once again facing a make-or-break financial moment. The low-cost airline’s major cash shortage has it looking to bondholders to bail it out of dangerous financial waters. Industry experts say Norwegian‘s future likely hangs in the balance.

“They are managing the crisis as best they can, but they are on the verge of a cliff edge,” analyst Daniel Roeska told CNN.

In an effort to scrape together more cash before its slower winter season, the budget transatlantic carrier asked bondholders on Monday for up to a two-year extension in repaying two bonds about to reach maturity, which total about $380 million. As collateral, Norwegian is even offering up its landing slots at London’s Gatwick Airport, a key element of its transatlantic business. If bondholders accept the revised debt plan, the airline will have until November of 2021 and February of 2022 to pay, rather than being forced to ante up this December and next August.

Link: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/norwegian-air-is-taking-last-ditch-measures-to-avoid-bankruptcy

The French airline Aigle Azur has announced that it will file for bankruptcy and enter into receivership. This is following a recent dispute between the airline’s shareholders. The airline also confirmed that it was facing financial troubles in August, with a debt totaling around 40 million euros.

Link: https://aeronauticsonline.com/aigle-azur-to-file-for-bankruptcy/#targetText=The%20French%20airline%20Aigle%20Azur,totaling%20around%2040%20million%20euros.

Two airlines cancel flights to Cairo after Britain warns of ‘heightened risk of terrorism’
British Airways and Lufthansa canceled all flights to Cairo on Saturday over unspecified security concerns after the British government warned of a “heightened risk of terrorism against aviation.” The announcements by two of Europe’s biggest airlines caught some passengers off guard as they prepared to board their flights, the…

Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/07/21/two-airlines-cancel-flights-cairo-after-britain-warns-heightened-risk-terrorism/?utm_term=.a1a91f7e2b66