American extends cancellations of Boeing 737 Max until after Thanksgiving

American Airlines is removing the Boeing 737 Max from its schedule until early December, a month later than expected, as grounding of aircraft in trouble following two fatal accidents continued, resulting in cancellations. flying over Thanksgiving.

The planes have been stalled since mid-March, when regulators ordered airlines to no longer carry passengers after two fatal collisions within five months.

American plans to cancel about 140 flights a day between November and December 3, which is more than the 115 scheduled flights in the two months before November 3, when he had already planned that planes resume their schedule . The cancellations due to Max's six-month run-up have increased because the airlines were expecting additional planes to be delivered. American had 24 planes on the 737 Max of his fleet at the time of the grounding in March and was expected to have 40 by the end of the year.

After the second crash, Boeing suspended deliveries of new Max aircraft, but still produces them, but at a slower pace. The automaker expects the aircraft to be back in service in the fourth quarter, but announced that it could suspend production altogether if there were more delays.

The manufacturer has developed a patch for the jets after the investigators involved in an accident involved a flight control system in both air disasters, but it has not yet been officially submitted and approved by the regulators. Together, the two accidents – a Lion Air flight in Indonesia in October and an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Ethiopia in March – killed a total of 346 people.

Regulators did not say when they planned to clear the planes to fly again. Even after signing, airline leaders said it would take them more than a month to make Boeing 's software changes and train their pilots.

The US decision to extend cancellations because of the Max, announced Sunday, follows a similar initiative by United Airlines, which announced Friday that it would remove planes from its schedule until December 19th. The latest changes make the two airlines do not expect to fly the planes during Thanksgiving holidays, but that they would come back in time for the Christmas period.

The airlines that purchased the jets repeatedly postponed the scheduled date of their flight and canceled their flights several months in advance, to avoid any disruption to the movement of passengers and crews closer to the date of their flight. flight. This resulted in thousands of canceled flights during the busy summer season for most of the fall. The absence of Max has resulted in increased costs for these airlines and a loss of profits.

Southwest Airlines, the largest customer of 737 Max in the US, removed planes from its program until early January and announced that it would decrease this year instead of increasing capacity as expected as it did not no access to his planes Max.

American pointed out that some flights that he was planning to operate with a 737 Max might not be canceled as they would exchange that plane for others. It also means that some flights initially scheduled with other aircraft may be canceled when the carrier reassigns these aircraft on high demand routes.

The benefits of Max grounding occur when the carrier faces other operational challenges. American quarrels with his mechanics' union, a dispute that, according to the airline, has caused hundreds of cancellations and long delays. Last month, Kerry Philipovitch, senior vice president of customer experience at American, said at a press conference that the airline's customer service team was calling travelers with experienced multiple disruptions of their trip in order to apologize and offer compensation in some cases.

American announced on Sunday that she planned to contact travelers whose flights were canceled due to new schedule changes and that these customers can make a new booking or request a full refund.