Southwest Airlines has become the latest carrier in the United States to cancel flights scheduled to be served by the grounded Boeing 737 MAX fleet through the Labor Day weekend.
According to The Associated Press, officials from Southwest announced the airline’s fleet of 34 impacted 737 MAX planes were removed from its flight schedule through September 2, which will result in an estimated 100 flight cancellations a day.
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Southwest said the company is confident the 737 MAX planes will be safe and cleared to return to service when the Federal Aviation Administration approves Boeing’s changes to flight software and pilot training.
American Airlines was the first carrier in the U.S. to extend the 737 MAX cancellations through September 3, a move expected to impact hundreds of passengers each day. Airline officials also revealed customers scheduled for flights not being served by Boeing aircraft could be facing cancellations, as American will likely be prioritizing high-passenger journeys.
Boeing is working on software updates that would prevent the faulty sensor readings that were a factor in the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.
Southwest released a statement about the schedule adjustments:
By proactively removing the MAX from scheduled service, we can reduce last-minute flight cancellations and unexpected disruptions to our Customers’ travel plans. We will proactively contact all Customers whose itineraries will be impacted by the revision to offer them maximum flexibility and re-accommodate them well in advance of their travel date. The revision will proactively remove roughly 100 daily flights from our schedule out of our total peak-day schedule of more than 4,000 daily flights.
We offer our apologies to our Customers impacted by this change, and we thank them for their continued patience.
