American Airlines, Southwest Extend Boeing 737 Max Cancellations Through March

A Boeing 737 cockpit

American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, two of the three major operators of the beleaguered Boeing 737 Max aircraft, announced that they have delayed the restarting flights of the aircraft until March 2020.

The move means that the plane will have been grounded for almost a year at that point if, in fact, it is cleared for flights at that time.

American set the date to restart 737 Max operations as March 5, 2020 and expects to have to cancel 140 flights per day until then.

Southwest, which had previously announced it would restart flights on February 8, 2020, now says it will restart 737 operations on March 6.  The ongoing issue will cause it to cancel approximately 175 flights per day until the aircraft is back in operation.

In October, United Airlines said it would restart flights on January 6, 2020. The Chicago-based airline has not updated this guidance.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)