Southwest Airlines is canceling more flights for Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft, giving up on using the jets during the travel-heavy summer season as federal regulators evaluate the embattled plane’s readiness for commercial flight.
The Dallas-based carrier, one of three in the U.S. that fly the 737 Max, said the jets would be removed from its flight schedule through Sept. 2, nearly one month longer than initially planned. With 34 737 Max planes in its fleet, the additional cancellations will force Southwest to remove roughly 100 daily flights from its schedule.
“By proactively removing the Max from scheduled service, we can reduce last-minute flight cancellations and unexpected disruptions to our customers’ travel plans,” Southwest said.
Southwest, American Airlines, and United Airlines have all been grappling with the fallout from the sidelining of Boeing’s fleet of 737 Max aircraft in mid-March. With 400 737 Max jets operated worldwide, 67 of which are in the U.S., the aircraft’s grounding forced airlines to reshuffle their spring and summer schedules, typically among the most lucrative periods for air travel.
American, which has 24 737 Max planes in its fleet, said earlier this week it’s extending cancellations for the jets through Sept. 3, impacting roughly 115 flights per day.
United’s plans to keep the 737 Max from its flight schedule through Aug. 3 have not changed, the company said. It has 14 of the aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration followed the lead of its international counterparts in March by pulling the planes from commercial use after two deadly crashes in five months.
The link between the two incidents was an issue with the jet’s anti-stall system, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, and Boeing began working on a patch for the software following the crashes, which killed more than 300 people.
Boeing completed that fix last month, bringing the grounded fleet closer to resuming commercial flights. It’s now awaiting approval from federal and international regulators.
Aircraft equipped with the patch have logged more than 360 hours on 207 test flights so far, Boeing said.
