Officials from American Airlines announced Wednesday they are extending the cancellation of Boeing 737 MAX flights through at least January 15.
According to airlines-cancels-boeing-737-max-flights-until-jan-16-idUSKBN1WO1FX” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>Reuters.com, American revealed it believes software updates to the 737 MAX fleet will soon be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which will lead to the “recertification of the aircraft later this year and resumption of commercial service in January 2020.”
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The airline already boasts 24 MAX planes as part of its fleet and has dozens more on order. American officials are working under the assumption the carrier will gradually resume MAX flights starting January 16.
The plan is for American to resume about 20 MAX flights a day starting in mid-January until all of the planes are flying once again in February. The airline previously announced it would cancel about 140 flights a day through December 3.
The FAA responded Wednesday by saying the agency is “following a thorough process, not a prescribed timeline, for returning the Boeing 737 Max to passenger service. The FAA will lift the aircraft’s prohibition order when it is airlines/faa-says-individual-countries-will-decide-when-to-return-737-max-to-the-air.html” target=”_self” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>deemed safe to do so.”
Earlier this month, American Airlines‘ pilots asked for compensation from lost pay caused by the 737 MAX grounding.
Southwest Airlines previously announced it had canceled MAX flights through January 5 and United Airlines revealed cancellations through December 19. In addition, Southwest pilots have filed a lawsuit against Boeing accusing the company of misleading the airline.
The Boeing 737 MAX has been grounded since mid-March following two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.
