The A and B groups had already boarded Jesse Damiani’s Southwest Airlines flight, to New Orleans from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, when President Trump announced that Boeing’s 737 Max plane was grounded. “We were waiting for groups C and D to board when we got news,” he said in a phone interview. Forty-two other nations had grounded the planes, as well as airlines around the world. Domestically, travelers on specific routes offered by Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines will be affected by this change. Air Canada and WestJet also fly Max 8 planes but had grounded them earlier on Wednesday.

Source: New York Times March 13, 2019 21:05 UTC