2 Major Airlines Cancel Thousands Of Boeing Max Flights Through November

With aviation authorities around the world still months away from allowing Boeing's 737 Max planes to fly passengers again, two major airlines are now extending Max flight cancellations into November.

American Airlines announced Monday it is pulling the 737 Max from its schedule through Nov. 2, canceling about 115 flights per day. American reported last week that the Max grounding has already cost the airline $185 million in lost revenue.

United Airlines, the second largest U.S. airline in passenger volume, said Friday it would cancel flights through Nov. 3. That's 2,100 flights in September and another 2,900 flights in October because 14 of its 737 Max jets are grounded.

The Federal Aviation Administration found a new problem in Boeing's max plane last month, so it will like be several more months before the company develops a fix and the troubled plane is certified to fly passengers again.

The FAA and its global counterparts ordered all 737 Max planes grounded in March, after an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed shortly after taking off, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second deadly 737 Max plane crash in less than five months. A Lion Jet 737 Max plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia in October under strikingly similar circumstances, killing all 189 people on board that plane.

Boeing says it has completed a software fix for an automated flight control system that investigators link to both crashes, but in running tests of that software upgrade in a simulator, FAA test pilots discovered a new problem. The company says it will take at least until September to complete fix for that issue, and it may then take several months after that for regulators to conduct a new round of testing as part what will likely be a lengthy recertification process for the plane.

The only other U.S. airlines that has Max planes in their fleets is Southwest, which also likely have to extend cancellations deeper into its fall schedules that it already have. So far Southwest, which has 34 of the planes parked and unable fly, is cancelling about 150 flights a day through Oct. 1 due to the Max grounding.

The longer the Max is grounded, the greater the impact on the airlines and their passengers. All three airlines have many more 737 Max planes on order, which they had planned on integrating into their flight schedules that are planned out months and sometimes years in advance.

United, for example, is cancelling about 40-45 flights a day this month — 1,290 flights for the month of July. That number grows to about 60 flights a day in August, 70 flights a day in September, and 95 flight a day in October.

American Airlines reported that it expected its losses to grow in the third quarter.

On the other hand, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, which doesn't fly Boeing's 737 Max, told reporters his airline received a "small, marginal benefit" due to the grounding of Boeing's 737 Max planes owned by its rivals.

Meanwhile, a group of consumers filed a lawsuit against Boeing and Southwest Airlines in Texas state court this week, alleging that both companies knew about the dangers of flying the 737 Max planes but they still sold tickets to customers.

Federal authorities have launched a sweeping grand jury investigation into Boeing's development of the aircraft and whether the company ignored or downplayed safety concerns. The FAA is also a focus of that criminal probe as investigators look into whether officials failed to execute their proper regulatory authority when certifying the plane.

According to Bloomberg News, U.S. Attorney General William Barr is recusing himself from that investigation because his former law firm, Kirland and Ellis, is representing Boeing in the matter.

Congress is continuing to investigate the crashes, too, as well as the FAA's process of certifying the now grounded plane. The House Aviation Subcommittee has scheduled another 737 Max hearing for this week, during which, lawmakers will, for the first time, hear from some of the families of those killed in Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air 737 Max crashes. Others scheduled to testify include a National Transportation Safety Board official, pilots, flight attendants, FAA inspectors and aircraft mechanics and maintenance workers.

And the Boeing Company's executive in charge of the 737 Max program is retiring after less than a year in the post.

Eric Lindblad, 57, is a highly respected engineer and factory operations expert who has been with Boeing for 34 years. He took over the 737 program at the company's Renton, Wash., factory outside of Seattle last August to improve supply chain problems that were slowing production amid a backlog of thousands of orders for the new plane.

But the job quickly shifted to dealing with the fallout of the 737 Max crashes in Indonesia last October and in Ethiopia in March, both of which investigators link to an automated flight control system in the planes that pilots could not override.

But it appears Lindblad is not being forced out because of the Max crisis, but had actually planned to retire from the airplane manufacturer a year ago. In a message to employees, Kevin McAllister, Boeing's top commercial airplanes executive, said Lindblad "shared with me his desire to retire last year," but that he stayed on to take the helm of the 737 program. McAllister praised Lindblad's "strong leadership... as he has navigated some of the most difficult challenges the company has ever faced." He will be replaced by Mark Jenks, who has been leading the development of a new, yet to be named, mid-market plane. [Copyright 2019 NPR]