American Airlines extends Boeing 737 Max flight cancellations through early September
American Airlines announced Sunday it will extend cancellations of flights on Boeing 737 Max aircraft through Sept. 3.
The airline, which is the largest U.S. carrier, said the cancellations would affect approximately 115 flights per day. American previously announced in April that it would cancel flights on the 737 Max through Aug. 19 due to the Federal Aviation Administration’s mandatory grounding of the Boeing jet.
“American Airlines remains confident that impending software updates to the Boeing 737 MAX, along with the new training elements Boeing is developing in coordination with our union partners, will lead to recertification of the aircraft soon,” the airline said in a statement on Sunday.
Other major U.S. airlines have also canceled flights on its Max jets into August. United, which flies 14 Max jets, canceled flights through Aug. 3, while Southwest, the U.S. carrier that flies the most Max aircraft, plans to resume flights on Aug. 5.
The FAA grounded all 737 Max aircraft in the U.S. following two fatal crashes involving the jet. An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed in March killing 157 people, and in October, a Lion Air Max jet crashed off the coast of Indonesia killing 189 people.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAL | AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC. | 14.26 | -0.20 | -1.42% |
| BA | THE BOEING CO. | 143.78 | -2.31 | -1.58% |
| UAL | UNITED AIRLINES HOLDINGS INC. | 94.22 | -0.41 | -0.43% |
| LUV | SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO. | 31.89 | +0.12 | +0.38% |
Boeing is finalizing changes to the Max’s flight-control software, known as MCAS, which was designed to prevent the aircraft from stalling. That system was linked to the Ethiopian and Lion Air crashes.
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The plane-maker said in April it would cut production of the Max to 42 aircraft per month from the current 52 per month.