American Airlines is cancelling 115 flights a day this summer as it struggles with the grounding of the 737 Max fleet.
The world’s biggest airline said it would extend the grounding until 19 August to “plan more reliably” for the peak summer holiday season, and “provide confidence” for customers and crew.
“Based upon our ongoing work with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing, we are highly confident that the Max will be recertified prior to this time,” said a statement from American Airlines CEO Doug Parker.
“Once the Max is recertified, we anticipate bringing our Max aircraft back on line as spares to supplement our operation as needed during the summer.”
The airline said it was “confident” that with new software updates to the aircraft’s anti-stall system and new training for Max pilots, the troubled aircraft would soon be recertified as airworthy. American Airlines added that it was in “continuous contact” with aviation and transport regulatory bodies in the US, and was “pleased” with the progress that had been made.
The global Boeing 737 Max fleet was grounded on 13 March, following the Ethiopian Airlines crash a few days earlier that killed 157 people. The preliminary report into the crash, released earlier this month, said that the Ethiopian pilots did everything right, but could not save the doomed jet.
Last week, Southwest Airlines said it would ground its Max fleet until 5 August.
Affected customers will be contacted by email or phone, American Airlines said.
