Grounded Boeing 737 MAX Jets Impacting Oklahoma Travelers

Four of Boeing's 737 MAX jets are parked at Tulsa International Airport, with more on the way, after the FAA grounded the planes for passenger flights Wednesday. American is ferrying the planes to Tulsa to wait for a solution to the problem possibly tied to two fatal crashes of the aircraft.

Nine of American's 737 MAX 8 and Max 9 fleet will be parked in Tulsa indefinitely. Grounded Boeing 737 MAX in Tulsa.

"I was going to lead a study abroad trip for 13 OSU students," said Professor Thomas Kuzmic. "The trip's been planned since October."

Dr. Kuzmic said American cancelled a flight from Miami to Ecuador, and had no alternative to meet the only available to flights to the islands.

"That is absolutely impossible at this point. Finding out the afternoon before the morning of our departure, we had virtually no time to deal with this issue," said Kuzmic, who said the few flights to such a remote place are booked sometimes a year in advance.

Related Story: American Airlines Brings 737 MAX 8 Jets To Tulsa For Parking 

The aircraft scheduled for maintenance in Tulsa all serve long distance routes, and are from New York, Washington DC, Florida, and the Caribbean. The rest of the fleet is going to smaller bases around the country.

American says it cancelled the 85 flights scheduled daily on the MAX 8 - and they'll remain cancelled until replacement aircraft can be moved into place. The planes in Tulsa will stay parked until the FAA approves repairs and the maintenance is completed.

American issued the following statement:

On March 13, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all U.S.-registered Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, including the 8 and 9 variants, as a precautionary measure. This includes the 24 MAX 8 aircraft in the American Airlines fleet. We are complying with the FAA directive.

On average, American operates 85 flights per day on the MAX 8, out of 6,700 departures throughout our operation. Approximately 85 flights will be canceled daily due to the grounded MAX 8 fleet, which represents one percent of daily flights worldwide.

American has re-routed aircraft throughout our network to cover as much of the MAX schedule as we can. Some flights, that were previously not scheduled as a MAX, may be canceled as our team is focused on canceling flights that impact the smallest number of passengers.