Drivers’ licences from these states may soon be invalid as air travel ID

Over the next few weeks the Transport Security Administration (TSA) is ramping up its Real ID deadline awareness campaign with information posters and leaflets at airports throughout the country. In case you’ve forgotten, Real ID is an upgraded driver’s licence that meets newer federal security standards at TSA checkpoints. If your state isn’t compliant yet, you may need alternative ID when flying domestically.

You could be smiling for a passport photo someday. Image by AZarubaika/Getty Images

The Real ID Act will go into effect on 1 October, 2020, meaning that all air travellers must carry a Real ID-compliant driver’s licence or alternative acceptable identification to fly domestically. Currently, all states are either compliant or have extensions, with the exception of California, which is still under review.

“TSA is doing everything we can to prepare our partners and the traveling public for the Real ID deadline next year,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske in a statement. “The security requirements of the Real ID Act will dramatically enhance and improve commercial aviation security.”

Domestic flyers may need to bring passports when travelling. Image by Tetra Images

The states with extensions are Maine (10 October, 2019), Rhode Island (1 May, 2019), New Jersey (10 October, 2019), Pennsylvania (1 August, 2019), Kentucky (1 August, 2019), Missouri (1 August, 2019), Oklahoma, (10 October, 2019) Montana (1 June, 2o19), Oregon (10 October, 2019) and Alaska (1 June, 2019). If state drivers’ licenses do not become compliant by their extension date, residents will need to bring another form of ID to the airport when flying domestically.

California is the only state under review and that’s caused some confusion. In December, SF Gate reported that the new ID cards issued by California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) didn’t meet the federal government’s standards. Instead of requiring two forms of proof of residency, the California DMV was only requiring one form, which wasn’t sufficient. But the federal government agreed to recognise the 2.3 million Real ID cards already issued as valid and they can be accepted until 24 May, 2019.

The TSA is reminding air travellers about the Real ID deadline. Image: Win McNamee/Getty Images

And by October 2020, the law will fully come into effect and all states will have ensured that their new ID cards are compliant. By that date, air travellers won’t be able to fly domestically without one (passports are obviously still required for international travel). It’s important to note that states will not automatically send individuals compliant driver’s licenses. Instead, individuals must apply in person at their local DMV and bring identifying documentation, such as a birth certificate or a passport and be prepared to take a new photo.

You can discover more background information on Real ID through a previous article we published here. Otherwise, you can check out the TSA website for more information.

Why aren’t eco-conscious consumers more worried about air travel?

It’s a phrase so obvious it’s surprising that it’s only just entered the lexicon: “flying shame,” as it’s been dubbed in Sweden, or the feeling that jetting off to far away places is something to be ashamed of in the age of climate change.

And it’s not just an attitude but, increasingly for Swedes, a consumer choice. A survey conducted by WWF found that 23% of Swedes had chosen not to fly in the last year to reduce their impact on the climate. A further 18% had opted for rail travel over planes for the same reason.

But the phrase is notable precisely because it’s a sentiment that doesn’t seem widespread. As the idea of conscious consumerism has become nothing short of mainstream in affluent consumers’ lives over the past decade, there’s been one notable blind spot: getting on a plane. It’s not hard to find people who have changed their diet to one that’s more environmentally friendly, who drive a hybrid vehicle, or who seek out clothing and household products made from sustainable materials. But it’s much rarer to find someone that says: “I’m not going on vacation or traveling for work this year—it’s bad for the environment.”

Eyewitness This: SoCal company gives special-needs families air-travel practice, bacon cancer study, Mickey’s Halloween Party is moving – KABC

Here are some stories to start your day.

Open Sky for Autism provides special-needs families with lifelike air-travel practice
Taking a family trip can be challenging for any parent – but it can be especially tough for families of children with autism and other special needs.

But one local company is making things a little easier by giving families a lifelike flight experience.

The Open Sky for Autism program provides air-travel practice for the entire family -like checking in, buckling up, turbulence – and it involves Real-life flight attendants, TSA workers and pilots. Open Sky boards 4-5 times a year and the experience is free. To learn, more go to www.airhollywood.com/events/open-sky-for-autism.

Study: Eating slice of bacon a day linked to higher risk of cancer
A study claims eating one slice of bacon a day could increase your risk of cancer.

Researchers tracked nearly half of a million adults in the United Kingdom for five years, KCCI reports. They found for every 25 grams of processed meats like sausage or bacon eaten every day, a person’s risk of colorectal cancer went up 20-percent.

Twenty-five-grams is about 0.8 ounces and roughly equates to a thin slice of bacon. Red meat also caused an increase in risk, but it took a larger amount for the same effect.

Researchers discovered when a person ate just over on ounce and a half of red meat, their cancer risk increased by 19%. A typical hamburger is about four ounces of meat.

Disney Halloween!
Disneyland’s famous Mickey’s Halloween Party will move to California Adventure this year and is now called the Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween Party.

It will be hosted by Oogie Boogie from the “Nightmare Before Christmas.” It features a villain-themed World of Color and a nighttime outdoor dance party.

Tickets go on sale April 23 for passholders, Vacation Club members and Disney Visa card holders. Tickets go on sale to everyone else on April 30.

United Airlines Plays Hardball With Expedia and JPMorgan Chase

United Airlines has had relationships with JPMorgan Chase and Expedia Group for years, but on Wednesday the airline’s executives suggested both companies may need to improve their offers to maintain the carrier’s business.

Simply put, it’s not 2009 anymore. Then, with airlines facing higher fuel costs and a recession, they would take cash anywhere they could find it, often by accepting mediocre deals with credit card issuers and online travel agencies.

After consolidation, and with a healthier economy, U.S. carriers are strong now. They consistently make money. In the first quarter, even as it wrestled with operational challenges, including the Boeing 737 Max grounding, United reported net income of $292 million, roughly double compared to last year.

Now, it can be more aggressive with its partners. On the credit card side, executives have been negotiating with JPMorgan Chase on a new contract, asking for terms as generous as Delta Air Lines received earlier this month from American Express. The United relationship is important to Chase, and eventually, the airline likely will get its own rich deal.

Expedia is another matter.

In February, United said it has been unable to reach a new agreement with the online travel agency, and on Wednesday executives confirmed they plan to pull their flights from the group’s consumer sites by Sept. 30. United executives said Expedia no longer provides enough value, given its cost.

“This is time to change,” said Andrew Nocella, United’s chief commercial officer, on the airline’s first quarter conference call. “Companies need to evolve and innovate, and we here at United changed a lot. We have invested in our own website and our app and continue to develop much more cost-effective and transparent and optimal sales abilities to distribute our content.”

As with Chase, United could be trying to force better terms from Expedia. But this could also be real, with United ready to have a closer relationship with customers.

Chase Negotiations

Almost since he joined United as president in August 2016, Scott Kirby has been working to reach a new deal with Chase with more favorable economics.

United’s current agreement puts it at a considerable disadvantage to its peers, said Joseph DeNardi, an analyst with Stifel who follows loyalty closely. United’s previous management team had announced the agreement in 2015, and while the airline has not said how long it lasts, DeNardi said he expects it goes through 2021.

“That was, to be polite, a really bad deal for United,” DeNardi said.

After Delta announced on April 2 it had extended with American Express for 11 years, United’s negotiations took on new urgency. By 2023, Delta could make $7 billion, and Kirby wants similar economics for United. He called it the airline’s “single biggest margin-growth opportunity.”

“The co-brand component of our program underperformed relative to our peers, and this disparity only widened after recent announcements,” Kirby told analysts on Wednesday. “We’re negotiating with Chase opportunities for improved economics for our card partnership to ensure that our deal delivers industry-competitive value.”

Kirby acknowledged United carries fewer passengers than Delta, but said the two airlines have roughly the same revenue. He also stressed United has hubs in the largest U.S. business centers, including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, where prospective credit card holders may have more money.

“There’s no question that we have the best set of markets and the best potential for cards for total spend,” Kirby said. “They are the premier markets for the premium card demand.”

Kirby appears confident he’ll reach an extension deal. But in a note, DeNardi said he expects United will engage in a request for proposals process, if only to put pressure on Chase. United, he said, could solicit proposals from Wells Fargo or Bank of America.

When Kirby was president of American, DeNardi noted, the airline shopped its card business. Eventually, it split it between Citibank and Barclays, both of which had already done business with the company: Citibank with American and Barclays with merger partner US Airways.

“We would be shocked if United doesn’t go through the RFP process with its card portfolio this time around,” DeNardi said, adding that “certain current United executives believe this was a very lucrative strategy by American.”

Expedia Saga

With Expedia, Kirby may also be posturing. In 2014, when he led American, Kirby pulled the airline’s fares off of Orbitz during a contractual dispute. The fares returned.

But this time might be different.

Nocella, who worked with Kirby at American and US Airways, said airlines no longer need sites like Expedia as they once did.

“Expedia has historically been very good in selling our lowest fares but quite obviously, we think we can sell our lowest fares just as well,” he said. “We look forward to having a direct relationship with our customers going forward, and that’s really where we are with Expedia.”

Kirby told analysts losing Expedia’s distribution won’t be a material hit to United’s 2019 earnings. The airline is still predicting it will earn between $10 and $12 per share for the full-year, assuming the Expedia relationship ends on Sept. 30.

For Expedia, the exposure likely is also minor, Jake Fuller, an analyst with Guggenheim, wrote in a recent report.

He said Expedia likely sells about 8.5 million domestic United tickets per year, for about $2.8 billion in bookings. He said Expedia makes $10.56 in revenue per ticket, so he guessed Expedia could lose about $90 million per year, or about 0.8 percent of total global revenue.

Of course, that’s only if United follows through with its threat to leave.

“The big question is whether United intends to walk away from Expedia following the contract expiration, or whether it is simply playing hardball in search of better terms,” Fuller said. “Ultimately we do not know the answer.”

United Airlines Nonstop Flights To Cape Town Are Coming Soon

United Airlines is offering nonstop flights to Cape Town starting December 15, 2019. This is a seasonal route operating through March 2020. Pending government approval, tickets will go on sale in May. The flights will operate on the new 787-9 Dreamliner fleet from Newark.

United Airlines will start flying to Cape Town, South Africa photo credit: Getty

Getty

Although United isn’t the first airline to offer nonstop service from the United States to Cape Town, it will be the only airline at this moment. It goes without saying that this is one of the longest routes one can fly. There are plenty of frequent flier miles that can be racked up from this one trip alone.

Flight Schedule

United’s planned flight schedule is departing Newark at 8:30 pm on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. This flight arrives in Cape Town at 6:00 pm on the next calendar day.

Return flights depart Cape Town at 8:50 pm on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. They arrive in Newark at 5:45 am on the next calendar day.

Once again, seasonal nonstop service begins December 15, 2019, and operates through March 2020. This new route still requires final government approval. Once approved, United anticipates selling the initial ticket in May 2019.

Polaris Class

United plans on using their new 787-9 Dreamliner fleet for their nonstop flights to Cape Town. This fleet already serves several long-haul routes including Houston to Sydney and San Francisco to Singapore.

It initially looks like the Cape Town flights will have 48 Polaris Class seats, 88 Economy Plus, and 116 Economy seats. A SeatGuru seat map indicates the Polaris seats will have the current 2-2-2 configuration. However, a redesigned 787-9 fleet will begin rolling out in late 2019. Once tickets go on sale, browsing future dates can mean flying on the newly designed fleet which will provide a better experience for Polaris and Economy Plus passengers.

By flying Polaris Class, travelers can also visit the United Polaris Lounge at Newark before takeoff.

When planning to fly this exciting new route, don’t forget to use the Chase Sapphire Preferred or United Explorer Card both of which offer the ability to earn 60,000 bonus points. New cardmembers can earn the 60k on the Chase Sapphire Preferred by spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening.

New United Explorer cardholders can earn 40,000 miles after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months of account opening. They’ll earn an additional 20,000 miles after spending $8,000 total on purchases within 6 months of account opening. This can be enough points to help book the first leg of the journey or even upgrade into a premium cabin.

Summary

Although it’s only a seasonal route, United’s nonstop flights to Cape Town will operate from Newark between December 15, 2019, and March 2020. This can be the perfect opportunity to visit one of Africa’s largest and most scenic cities. Since it’s one of the commercial air’s longest nonstop routes, flying to Cape Town can also be an ideal time to book a premium Polaris Class seat or Economy Plus.

United Airlines, squeezed by 737 Max groundings, trims growth plan for 2019

The grounding of its Boeing 737 Max jets is causing United Airlines to trim growth plans for this year, and the carrier expects to discuss potential compensation with Boeing.

Chicago-based United claims to be managing the grounding relatively well by pressing spare jets into duty and delaying discretionary maintenance work on other planes.

That approach, however, comes with extra costs — sometimes the airline uses bigger and less fuel-efficient two-aisle jets to replace the missing single-aisle Max on domestic routes.

United has 14 Max planes in its fleet, and airline executives said Wednesday they don’t expect those jets back before July. They said some of the 16 additional Max jets they expected to get this year might be delayed.

The Green New Deal: Flight attendants know it’s not a job killer. But climate change is.

“Pretty much everyone on the plane threw up” is not a sentence most travelers want to hear.

But that’s a direct quote from the pilots’ report after United Express Flight 3833 operated by Air Wisconsin hit extreme turbulence on approach to Washington, DC, in 2018.

Extreme turbulence is on the rise around the world. It isn’t just nauseating or scary — it’s dangerous.

In June 2017, nine passengers and a crew member were hospitalized after extreme turbulence rocked their United Airlines flight from Panama City to Houston.

A few weeks ago, a Delta Connection flight operated by Compass Airlines from Orange County, California, to Seattle hit turbulence so sudden and fierce, the flight attendant serving drinks — and the 300-pound drink cart — was slammed against the ceiling of the plane. The flight attendant’s arm was broken and three passengers were hospitalized.

In my 23 years as a flight attendant and president of our union representing 50,000 others, I know firsthand the threat climate change poses to our safety and our jobs. But flight attendants and airline workers have been told by some pundits that the Green New Deal, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey’s environmental proposal, will ground all air travel.

That’s absurd. It’s not the solutions to climate change that kills jobs. Climate change itself is the job killer.

Climate change is already changing flight attendants’ lives

Severe turbulence is becoming more frequent and intense due in part to climate change. Research indicates that rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere cause disruptions to the jet streams and create dangerous wind shears that greatly increase turbulence, especially at moderate latitudes where the majority of air travel occurs.

For flight attendants and passengers alike, that dangerous, shaky feeling in midair comes from air currents shifting. Clear air turbulence, or CAT, is the most dangerous. It cannot be seen and is virtually undetectable with current technology. One second, you’re cruising smoothly; the next, passengers and crew are being thrown around the cabin. For flight attendants, who are often in the aisles, these incidents pose a serious occupational risk.

Leading atmospheric scientists don’t mince words about the forecast. According to a study by professor Paul D. Williams and his colleagues at the University of Reading in the UK, CAT is expected to more than double by midcentury, and turbulence “strong enough to catapult unbuckled passengers and crew around the aircraft cabin” is expected to double or triple.

There’s an economic cost, too. Turbulence is already costing US airlines $200 million per year, with damage to aircraft plus injuries to passengers and crew. That number will skyrocket as extreme incidents increase. Costs are passed on to consumers and used to justify cuts to pay, benefits, and staffing levels for crew.

Turbulence is a threat to safety and economic security, but it’s only part of the harm caused by climate change. As extreme weather events become more common, more and more flights never take off at all. Grounded flights mean lost pay for flight attendants, who earn an hourly wage while we’re in the air.

When the polar vortex plunged most of the US into a deep freeze in January, airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights. Over the past two summers, flights in Phoenix and Salt Lake City were canceled due to excessive heat.

Wildfires in the West reduced visibility, slowed frequency of landings, and rerouted planes. Hurricanes and floods damaged airport infrastructure and altered flight service for weeks and months as battered islands and cities struggled to recover. Thunderstorms and severe winter storms strand more passengers and airline crews each year. And as the planet warms, we’re seeing more and more severe versions of nearly all of these weather events.

Climate change affects our home lives, too, as extreme events fueled by warming wreak havoc on US communities. More flight attendants applied for assistance from our union’s disaster relief fund in the past year than in the 16 previous years combined.

We need solutions that put workers first

Flight attendants’ jobs and lives are in danger if we don’t put a stop to this. But we also know the threat is far bigger than just aviation. If we don’t act swiftly, it will ground aviation and hurt the global community.

The aviation industry is leaning in to abate its contribution to climate change. In 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a resolution to align aviation with the goals set by the Paris climate accords. This is not the first action aviation has taken. Over the past 30 years, manufacturers have cut aircraft emissions in half, equivalent to taking 25 million cars off the road each of those years. The industry is working on low-emission alternative fuels and increased battery capacity to reduce its carbon footprint.

Aviation isn’t alone. We all want clean air, water, and to protect our children and their children from climate catastrophe. But working in silos will not achieve the change we need. The best way to work toward that is to fight together. Organized labor can also attack this: Unions were among the first to fight for our environment. In 1990, United Steelworkers said that global warming “may be the single greatest problem we face,” and in 2002, the United Mine Workers of America were arrested fighting the environmental practices of Massey Energy.

Our federal government must spearhead a national mobilization that brings these efforts together, harnesses American ingenuity, creates millions of well-paying union jobs, and saves the planet for our children. That is the vision of the Green New Deal resolution. It’s the moonshot of our time.

But architects and proponents of the Green New Deal also need to address the history of the “fair and just transition” the resolution promises. Too many communities have heard those words, only to see jobs disappear while the promise of retraining and new jobs never materializes. Workers are skeptical, and the opponents of meaningful action are taking advantage of that distrust.

If we can’t overcome suspicion that tackling climate change just means job loss, we’ll never enlist workers — or millions of others in jobs that rely on carbon-based fuels — in the solution.

Climate change is happening now. We need to get serious about it. Aspiring to achieve a green economy with good union jobs that leave no one behind is exactly the solution we need to fight climate change and provide opportunity for all Americans.

As we do this together, remember too: You should really listen when your flight attendant tells you to keep your seatbelt fastened.

Sara Nelson is the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, the flight attendant union representing 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines. Find her on Twitter @FlyingWithSara.


First Person is Vox’s home for compelling, provocative narrative essays. Do you have a story to share? Read our submission guidelines, and pitch us at firstperson@vox.com.

JetBlue founder David Neeleman wants to transform air travel in the US

The airline business is notoriously unforgiving. To get one successful airline off the ground is a feat worthy of immense praise. David Neeleman is working on the launch of his fifth airline.

In short, Neeleman, who was born in Brazil and raised in Utah, is arguably the most prolific and successful airline entrepreneur in recent memory.

Neeleman is credited as the founder of JetBlue Airways and Azul Brazilian Airlines. He is a cofounder of WestJet and Morris Air, which was sold to Southwest Airlines. He’s also the co-owner of Portugal’s national airline, TAP Air Portugal.

There are many reasons for his success. According to JetBlue Technology Ventures President Bonny Simi, some of his success can be attributed to his passion and energy for the business.

“David is the consummate entrepreneur,” Simi said. “He absolutely was not there to get rich or to make a paycheck. He was there to change the world of aviation.”

Simi left a cushy job as a United Airlines senior captain in 2003 to join Neeleman as a junior first officer at JetBlue.

Read more: The president of JetBlue’s venture capital firm is a renaissance woman who just might transform air travel.

Some of his success can also be attributed to his keen business instincts and his eye for spotting openings in the market.

“I would never start an airline or take over an airline that I thought didn’t have a reason for being, a ‘raison d’être,'” Neeleman told us.

At the end of the day, whatever secret power Neeleman possesses seems to give him the magic touch.

The JetBlue era

For all of his successes, Neeleman is probably best known as the founder of JetBlue Airways.

AP

The New York-based boutique airline, now valued at more than $5 billion, began flying in 2000 and helped bring affordable civility to America’s travelers by offering high-quality service and amenities at budget prices.

According to Neeleman, JetBlue came about when he noticed how the shortcomings of America’s major carriers in the late 1990s made them vulnerable to a newcomer.

“It was a time when the legacy carriers were offering really bad service, their costs were ultra-high, and they were just right for the plucking,” Neeleman told us.

As a result, JetBlue was created to be a customer-service company that flies airplanes.

Sadly, Neeleman’s departure from JetBlue proved to be a painful one.

In February 2007, a severe winter storm paralyzed JetBlue’s New York base, leaving hundreds of passengers stuck on the tarmac for as long as 10 hours. The operational meltdown left a dent in JetBlue’s sterling reputation for customer service.

Neeleman vacuuming a JetBlue Airbus A320 in 2001.
AP

Neeleman apologized publicly for the incident, but by May of that year, the airline’s board of directors ousted him from his role as CEO. He would remain on as chairman before leaving the airline altogether in 2008.

For Neeleman, leaving JetBlue proved to be a painful experience, and it took years for him to get over it.

“Every time I’d land at JFK Airport and saw the JetBlue terminal, I could hardly look at it,” he said.

Neeleman returns to Brazil

After his departure from JetBlue, he returned to Brazil to start his next airline, Azul (Portuguese for “blue”) — a not so subtle reference to airline he had just left.

“I picked up the pieces, went to Brazil, and took 10 people from JetBlue with me,” Neeleman said. “Sometimes one door closes and another one opens, and you can do a lot of good with that.”

In Brazil, the military built airports in smaller cities around the country, but its two major airlines at the time did not find them financially worthwhile to serve. Instead, GOL and TAM (now LATAM) focused on providing service between more heavily traveled city pairs.

That’s where Azul stepped in. The low-cost airline launched service to dozens of cities that had either not had air service at all or had been abandoned by other airlines.

“It’s really transformed Brazil in ways I could have never imagined,” Neeleman said. “A lot of the cities we fly to, it’s either you go on us or you take a four-day boat ride out of there.”

REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

Operationally, flying to smaller cities across Brazil poses some distinct challenges, including the need to operate a fleet of planes with the sole job of flying parts and supplies into the Amazon. Fortunately, the airline has been rewarded for its bold strategy.

“When we started in Brazil there were less than 50 million people traveling by air. This year, there will be more than 100 million people flying,” he said. “We created half of that business (growth).”

Azul, which has a market capitalization of more than $2.8 billion, has no competition on 70% of its routes and is dominant of 89% of its routes, Neeleman told us.

Transforming air travel in America

These days, the charismatic businessman is developing his fifth major airline startup. Once again, Neeleman is looking to fill a market niche left open by others in the industry.

Code-named Moxy, his next endeavor wants to transform low-cost air travel for smaller cities in the US in very much the same way Azul did in Brazil. According to Neeleman, as costs increase for airlines, they have a tendency to retrench their network to focus on their hubs and operate larger planes. Thereby leaving behind smaller, less trafficked destinations.

“We think there’s a market where you can go with a smaller plane with a lower trip cost and service these cities that have been forgotten or neglected,” he said.

An Airbus A220-300.
Airbus

Neeleman posits that there are enough neglected routes in the US that his new airline could grow substantially without any direct competition.

“I would be very surprised if a single Moxy route had nonstop service competition,” he told us. “There are literally hundreds and hundreds of city pairs that are crying out for nonstop flights.”

It’s unclear what the airline’s actual name will be when it goes into operation in 2021. However, when it does, it will operate a fleet of 60 brand-new Airbus A220-300 airliners.

United Airlines Cancels All Boeing 737 Max Flights Until July

United Airlines revealed on April 16 it would extend a suspension on all flights using a controversial aircraft.

The airline will cancel all routes that would normally be flown with the Boeing 737 Max until at least July to give the carrier time to address a variety of safety concerns that allegedly caused two planes to crash in Ethiopia and the Java Sea in Indonesia, killing 346 passengers and crew members in the process.

The airline’s earlier ban on its 14 Max planes was originally intended to end on June 5. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have also recently grounded exactly the same model.

In its first quarter financial results, United confirmed it had already received delivery of “four Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft (prior to the March 13, 2019 Federal Aviation Administration order grounding U.S.-registered 737 Max aircraft) and four Boeing 787—10 aircraft.”

The company had hoped to use the spare aircraft to offer more seats for passengers ahead of the busy summer vacation period.

“Moving forward, we’ll continue to monitor the regulatory process and nimbly make the necessary adjustments to our operation and our schedule to benefit our customers who are traveling this summer,” a spokesman for United told CNBC.

Despite the setback caused by the Maxes being grounded, United Airlines Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz is still upbeat about the rest of the year and thanked all United staff.

“We are more confident than ever that we’ll reach our long-term adjusted earnings per share targets we unveiled last year,” he said in a public statement. “I want to thank all 93,000 of our employees for their incredible work as we overcame some unique challenges.”

United expects a $292 million net income for the first quarter of the year, which was off the back of a 7.1 percent jump in total passenger revenue compared to the same period in 2018.

In addition, the company’s benchmark passenger revenue per available seat mile for the same period rose 1.1 percent compared to the previous year.

“We made important progress on our customer investments while making strategic decisions to manage our costs and producing pre-tax margin growth that we expect will lead our peers,” Munoz said.

U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged the challenges the aviation industry has faced following the Max disasters, and encouraged the industry to take the opportunity to reinvent the brand.

“No product has suffered like this one,” Trump said in a Twitter post dated April 15. “If I were Boeing, I would fix the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features and rebrand the plane with a new name.”

If Boeing decides to follow Trump’s advice, there would be additional costs involved with rebranding the aircraft that would be passed on to airlines and finally the customer. The money would be used to comprehensively retrain pilots, while the updated model would involve less intense additional training.

Boeing is still finalizing its software upgrades for the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which will need to be submitted to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before the 737 Max grounding order can be lifted.

The FAA is holding talks with representatives from United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines about the next steps. More than 300 Maxes have been grounded across the world.