While hundreds of flights were cancelled for the safety inspections of United Airlines' Boeing 777s and American Airline's MD-80s earlier this month, Sam Morris, study abroad assessment coordinator, said it is too soon to tell if the cancellations will affect travel for the summer study abroad programs.
"At this point in time, the majority of the planes [being grounded] are the MD-80s, and that wouldn't affect any sort of international flights," Morris said.
However, Morris said that if the cancellations do affect anything it will be domestic flights, which could affect study abroad students with connecting flights because they are responsible to find and pay for their own transportation.
"It could affect some of our students, but it could be [that] by the time May gets around they're done with their inquiries for maintenance," he said. "Hopefully, the FAA has straightened out everything by the time that reaches us."
Morris said that the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, is the organization responsible for the maintenance check on the planes. According to an FAA press release, the organization is currently adding improvements to their inspection system, which includes toughening ethical standards of inspectors and enhancing airline safety by clarifying directives given to the airline carriers. The FAA could not be reached to determine which carriers they will be inspecting in the following months.
"If [the FAA inspects] larger aircrafts, it could have an effect on if [students] make it to their programs on time," Morris said. "If they don't go to larger aircrafts and spend the summer looking at smaller aircrafts and they move to the smaller direction of the airlines then it probably won't affect the study abroad students."
He also added that the FAA has not contacted the University about specific airlines that will be grounded; however, students are free to book with whatever airline they feel most comfortable with.
"Sometimes faculty directors arrange group flights over, but even if the faculty director has arranged a group flight, most of the time our programs still allow for students to arrange their own travel," Morris said.
Summer Jones, a sophomore in First Year College, said she is planning to study abroad in London, England and Paris, France this summer and is not worried about flight cancellations because she is booked for a group flight that was scheduled by the University.
"I really don't think it's going to be that big of a problem," Jones said. "If it is, I'm sure the University will work it out."
Crystal Shackelford, a senior in international politics who is traveling to Egypt with the study abroad program this summer, said the fact that her flight is booked with a group has also made her less concerned about the flight cancellations.
"The only thing I'm a little worried about is the flight to New York," Shackelford said. "But RDU is an international airport, so if there is a cancellation I hope there wouldn't be a cancellation of the whole trip."
Despite the majority of the recent flight cancellations coming from the grounding of American Airlines' MD-80 aircrafts, Morris said it has yet to affect any of the incentives American Airlines presents to students studying abroad at the University.
According to Morris, the University currently participates in the American Airlines Global Leaders Program, in which three study abroad students are selected each year to receive a free airline ticket. In addition to the program, he said American Airlines also offers a 10 percent discount for any student flying abroad.
"As far as I know, they haven't contacted us and told us that the program isn't working for them," he said. "So I hope it continues to go on for some time because it's been really beneficial."
