United Airlines has joined American Airlines and Southwest Airlines in removing the 737 Max from its schedules until early March 2020, a change aligning US carriers’ expectations even as Boeing projects the aircraft will be flying before year end.
United Airlines has joined American Airlines and Southwest Airlines in removing the 737 Max from its schedules until early March 2020, a change aligning US carriers’ expectations even as Boeing projects the aircraft will be flying before year end.
United now expects its 737 Max flights will resume 4 March. It previously had removed the aircraft from its schedules until early January.
The move scrubs an additional roughly 3,300 flights from Chicago-based United’s schedule. The carrier disclosed the change in a statement that provides no details about reasons behind the decision.
“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 with us,” the airline’s statement says.
Assuming the Max returns to service in early March 2020, United will have cancelled more than 16,000 flights as a result of the grounding, which took effect in March, its figures show.
Earlier this month, American and Southwest pushed back their expected Max reentry dates. American’s schedule now has Max flights resuming on 5 March, and Southwest set the date at 7 March.
Despite those moves, several days ago Boeing issued a statement saying it expects the US Federal Aviation Administration will clear the Max to fly in December. Once that happens, airlines will likely need to run pilots through new training.
